The story of a nun. Nun Evfimiya (Pashchenko) Maternal love

At the end of the Sunday Liturgy and prayer services, when the parishioners of St. Lazarus Church began to go home, the rector, Father Theodore, came to the kliros and announced to the choristers:
- My dear readers, my golden singers, do not forget that on Friday we have the Patronal Feast. The Lord himself will serve. Please, everyone. Anton, - he turned to the leading bass, - you will certainly come. You know that Vladyka has his favorite "Cherubim" - with a bass solo... It's impossible to do without you.

Father, - sighed the young chorister, to whom the rector addressed. - That's the trouble, I can't come. I already asked the manager to reschedule the appointment for evening time Yes, he didn't allow it. And what if, he says, the sick will come in the morning, but the doctor will not be at the reception ... And he ordered to issue coupons for the reception just on Friday morning. So, father, I'm sorry. I wanted the best, but it turned out ...

Can't you change? asked the saddened abbot at once.

But who can replace me, father, if there are only two neurologists for the whole polyclinic - the head and me, - the chorister complained. - Who will take patients for me?

The abbot thought about it. And suddenly, suddenly, he lit up. Then he opened the door to the altar and called:

Father Victor! Get over here!

At these words, Father Victor, the recently ordained third priest of the church, came out of the altar to the kliros. Despite his youth, he was known as a jack of all trades, so he could, if necessary, cut down a bathhouse and cut funny dragons from fresh cucumbers for his three children when they began to act up. In addition, Father Victor was a student at the Theological Institute. And students, as you know, are not only smart people, but also resourceful. Victor's father had only one drawback - he was deprived musical ear, so that all attempts to teach him to sing, or at least keep the tone, were invariably unsuccessful.

That's what, father Victor, - said the rector to the third priest. Here a problem arose for us - it is necessary that by the time Vladyka Anton arrives, he must be at the Liturgy. And he can't get away from work. Unless someone replaces him. So, father Victor - replace Anton at his work. This will be your obedience from me.

If at that moment over the head of Fr. Victor's sky opened up and thunder roared, he would have been less horrified. It is easy for the abbot to say: "replace Anton." But how can this be done, if in medicine Fr. Victor understood no more than in singing? “I will refuse, I will certainly refuse,” Fr. Victor. But then he remembered that the will of the abbot cannot be contradicted, and that "obedience is more important than fasting and prayer." Therefore, he bowed his head to Father Theodore:

All right, Father Theodore. I will do as you please.

Remaining days until Friday Victor held in confusion and fear. His only consolation was that anything could still happen before Friday. For example, he gets sick, catches a cold, or twists his leg... He even began to pray to God that the Lord would perform a miracle, and he would not have to be a "doctor involuntarily." But the miracle did not happen, and Father Valery lived in perfect health until the fateful Friday.

I must say that the singer Anton, that is, the neurologist Anton Sergeevich, for his part, made every effort to secure Fr. Victor from possible surprises during the reception. Arriving with him at the clinic an hour before the start of the shift, he personally dressed the priest in a white coat and even tried to explain to him how, with the help of a special hammer with a rubber head, to cause reflexes in the patient. But most importantly, he entrusted it to the care of his nurse, Marya Ivanovna, one of the best nurses in the entire clinic. At the same time, all three agreed that Fr. Victor will only question the sick. When it comes to appointments, he important view she will nod her head to the nurse, and she herself will prescribe the necessary medicines and procedures. After all this preparation, Anton Sergeevich went to the temple, leaving Fr. Victor, as they say, to the will of God.

There was a lull at the reception for about twenty minutes after his departure. The patients either did not go, or lingered somewhere. While Marya Ivanovna was silently writing something, Father Victor, languishing in anticipation, managed to disassemble and reassemble the neurological hammer, finding a needle inside its head, and a hard brush inside the handle. He was about to ask the nurse about the purpose of these items, but then there was a knock on the office door, and the first patient appeared on the threshold, a man of about 50. “Lord, help me!” Father Victor pleaded desperately.

Hello, doctor, - said the newcomer.

Hello, what's your name? Ivan Ivanovich… Have a seat, please. Tell me exactly where your pain is concentrated?

Doctor, my lower back is tormented. I take pills, but it's all to no avail. Advise, suddenly scientists from sciatica came up with something new ...

And then the unexpected happened. Probably, due to excitement, Father Victor forgot the instructions given to him by Anton Sergeyevich, and instead of nodding importantly to the nurse, who was already holding paper and pen at the ready, he spoke to the patient:

New, you say? Are you fasting? No? In vain. I recently read in a magazine that if the fast is not observed, a strong deposition of salts in the bones begins. From this and all the problems. But soon the Christmas post will be. Try fasting. It will immediately become much easier ... Do you do bows? No, not gymnastics, but bows, with prayer. For example, this is how (at the same time, Father Victor, carried away by this, got up and showed the patient how to bow from the waist, bending down and reaching the floor with his hand). Try to do at least ten bows every day. And be sure to read the prayer at the same time. What kind of prayer? Any. For example, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." This prayer is called the Jesus Prayer. Or a prayer to the Mother of God ...

Doctor, can you write down these prayers, - the patient, noticeably perked up, asked. “Sister,” he turned to Marya Ivanovna, “please write down the words for me ...

Having received a piece of paper with the texts of prayers, as well as advice from Fr. Victor to buy a prayer book in the church, the smiling patient left the office. When parting, Fr. Victor blessed him with a priestly blessing:

Well, with God, be treated for the health of your soul and body.

So, contrary to the saying that “the first pancake is lumpy”, the first experience of Fr. Victor in the medical field was successful. But the already emboldened Fr. Victor fully experience the joy of his first success, as an elderly woman with a pale, exhausted face entered the office:

Doctor, please write me some pills for fear... Fear has tortured me, I have no strength.

What are you afraid of? - asked about. Victor

Yes, you understand, doctor, my neighbor is so mischievous, so angry. Already we swore, swore, almost reached the court. And then it began to seem to me that a black cat was running around my apartment. It looks like my neighbor made it for me. I already went to my grandmother, and she also told me that this was done on me, but what's the point? She took the money, and the cat ran and ran. Then I went to the doctors, they prescribed pills, prescribed them, but there was no point. Weak, apparently, pills do not help ... Maybe you can prescribe something stronger?

Pills will not help here - something else is needed here. Have you tried praying before bed? No? And here's how you do it - pray before going to bed, and then cross yourself and the corners of the apartment. Can't pray? Yes, even with the prayer that pectoral cross written: "Lord, save and save." Don't have a cross? But how is it - they were baptized, but there is no cross on you? You must wear a cross if you are baptized. After all, demons are more than anything in the world afraid of the Cross ... But is your apartment consecrated? Also no? Invite the priest, let him bless. Are there icons in the house? What are you, is it really possible for a house to be without a shrine? Buy by all means, icons are now sold in any church. Don't go to grandma's anymore. This is a sin, you need to repent of it. And make peace with your neighbor by all means - it is also a sin when people are at enmity. Have you been to confession for a long time? Never? So how will any evil spirits not appear after this? Be sure to confess, and the sooner the better. And before that, fast for three days, remember the sins that you have committed in order to confess them to the priest. No, well, what does it mean: "ashamed to tell"? A doctor is not ashamed to talk about his illness. And the priest is also a doctor, only a spiritual one. Well God bless you...

Oh, doctor, your words immediately made me feel better, - the woman perked up, - you are so comforting. Just like a dad...

Yes, I am a father, - I wanted to confess about. Victor, but the woman has already left the office.

Further reception of patients continued in the same spirit. Father Victor listened to people, consoled them, prescribed treatment and blessed them. And what is surprising is that on that day, nurse Marya Ivanovna did not have to write out a single prescription for medicines. The treatment was prescribed by Fr. Victor. You ask - how did he succeed if he did not know medicine? But don't most of the bodily diseases with which people go to the doctor have spiritual causes, in which spiritual doctors - priests - are the most well-versed? And from spiritual diseases - and the treatment is appropriate. To whom - fasting, to whom - intensified prayer, to whom - the distribution of alms, to whom - bows ... And all of us together - repentance for our sins.

The treatment that Victor prescribed it to his patients, it turned out to be so effective that over the weekend the news spread throughout the district that a certain famous metropolitan professor of neurology was visiting the clinic, who helps even the hopelessly ill. So on Monday, a whole crowd of suffering people gathered at the door of the neurologist's office. Alas, to their considerable disappointment, at the table, in a white coat, with a hammer in his hands, sat Anton Sergeevich, well known to them.

Doctor, - the patients decided to ask him, - tell me, please, where can I find that professor with a beard who had a reception here on Friday? May he heal us. Can you please tell me where it takes?

And then Anton Sergeevich told them the address of the medical institution where the doctor they were looking for practiced. You will say - but oh. Victor was not a doctor, but a priest. But a priest is also a doctor, only a spiritual one. And the place where he served - Orthodox church often referred to as a "doctor's office". That is, a hospital, or, if you like, a clinic. A polyclinic in which human souls are treated and healed.

Short biography:

Born in Arkhangelsk in 1964, in the family of teachers of the Arkhangelsk Medical Institute; in 1987 she graduated from the Arkhangelsk Medical Institute (AGMI, now SSMU), worked as a therapist in a nursing home, then, since 2000, she has been working as a neurologist (currently in one of the clinics in Moscow). She lived until 2012 - in Arkhangelsk, at present - in the city of Domodedovo, Moscow Region.
In 1981, she completed courses for working correspondents at the editorial office of the regional newspaper Pravda Severa. Since that time, she has been published in the regional newspaper Severny Komsomolets. Then, since 1985, she published a number of articles and reviews in the journal "Children's Literature", for one of which ("The Way to the Epic" (on transcriptions of ancient Russian epics for children) was awarded a prize). Member of the All-Union Seminar of Young Critics of Children's and Youth Literature (Moscow, 1985).
Author of a number of scientific papers on gerontology of the European North of Russia and local history.

Nominee Patriarch literary prize(2016)

She was baptized in 1985, from 1986–2012 she carried the obedience of a reader-singer in the Solombala church of St. Martin the Confessor.

She was tonsured into a cassock - 1993, into a mantle - in 1996. In 2000 she graduated from St. Tikhon's Theological Institute (in absentia).

• "Essays on the temples and monasteries of the city of Arkhangelsk" (Arkhangelsk, 1998),
• "Women's monasteries of the Arkhangelsk province" (Arkhangelsk, 1999),
• "Features of the social structure and social activities of the Sura Monastery" (Arkhangelsk, 2003),
• "Tales of the Holy Ascetics of the Arkhangelsk Land" (Arkhangelsk, 2002; reissue - 2009); early editions of this book: "Arkhangelsk Patericon" (2000) and "New Arkhangelsk Patericon" (2001), "Under the protection of St. Nicholas" (Arkhangelsk, 2005);
• “Abode on the White Sea” (life of St. Savvaty of Solovetsky) (Arkhangelsk, 2008),
• “Let his memory be unforgettable…” - the story of the Hieromartyr Hilarion (Trinity) (M., Publishing House of the Brotherhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2011);
• “Essays from the life of Orthodox northern women's monasteries, Ser. XIX - early. XX centuries (Arkhangelsk, 2007),
• collections of stories and fairy tales - "Ashes and Cross" (Arkhangelsk, 2008),
• "Until the Last Judgment" (Arkhangelsk, 2010),
• "Temple indestructible" (M., Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 2010),
• "The Secret of Vladyka Peter" (M., "Humility", 2011),
• “Christians are not born” (“Humility”, 2013);
• "The Optina Apple Trees" - a story about St. Ambrose of Optina (M., Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2001, reissues - 2012, 2014, 2017),
• "The Boy from the Grandmother's Icon" - a story about the righteous youth Artemy Verkolsky (M., Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius Stavropolsky, 2011; reprinted in 2014),
• "The Siberian Righteous" - a story about the righteous Theodore of Tomsk (M., Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2011),
• “The Secret of the Solovetsky Novice” - a story about the Monk Zosima of Solovetsky (M., Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius Stavropolsky, 2011, with illustrations by I. Golub; reprinted in 2014 with illustrations by A. Podivilov),
• “God is not in power, but in truth” - a story about the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky (M., Publishing house of the sisterhood of St. Ignatius Stavropol, 2012),
• “The Patriarch of Christians will die a martyr...” - the story of the Hieromartyr Gregory, Patriarch of Constantinople (Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2013);
• "The Christmas Saint" (the story of the holy martyr Eugenia) (Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2013);
• "Servant of the Mystery of the Nativity of Christ" (the story of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed (Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2013);
• “Like a bull and a donkey met the born Christ” (Publishing house of the Brotherhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2013; reissues 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019);
• "The Great Baptist of Rus'" (the story of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir) (mocking of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2014);
• "Bishop's gift" and "Christians are not born" (Alrasfera-publishing, 2012),
• collections of short stories "The Return of the Miraculous" ("Olma-Media, 2013);
• “Apple Trees of Elder Ambrose and Other Uninvented Stories” ((AST, 2014) in 2016, the Tradition Foundation recorded an audio book “Apple Trees of Elder Ambrose” in the author’s reading);
• “The adventures of a doctor or Christians are not born” (“Olma-Media”, 2014), reissue of “Resurrection”, 2017
• "The Story of a Nun" ("Olma-Media", 2014); "Rejected Happiness" ("Olma-Media", 2014);
• "Life as a gift to the Christ Child" (the story of the Holy Martyr Nikodim of Belgorod) (Publishing House of the Sisterhood of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, 2014).
• "Drama from parish life" ("Olma-Media", 2015)
• "Test by a miracle" ("Eksmo", "Resurrection", 2015)
• “Secrets of the monasteries. Life in ancient convents" ("Eksmo", "Resurrection", 2015)
• "Notes from the underworld. About passions and temptations" ("Eksmo", 2016)
• "Your Man in Heaven" (AST, 2016)
• Forgive me for everything. Stories about the miracles of faith and love (collection) ("The Ark", 2017 - three stories were published "To remind the slaves of the earth about Christ", "Martha", "Contrary to statistics")
• "Forgive me, Ksenia" ("Ripol", 2019)

Main publication sources:
"Omilia", "Slavyanka", "Orthodox Conversation"

A country: Russia

about the author

Nun Evfimiya (Pashchenko) works as a doctor in a Moscow clinic, and she also writes books that are a huge success.

This book opens a new genre - the Orthodox detective story. The main character of these stories, Nina Sergeevna, manages to get into situations that can only be resolved by intervention from above. But who is this heavenly helper? Whose intercession saves from troubles and even death? ..

Mother Euphemia was born in 1964 in Arkhangelsk into a family of doctors. In 1987 she graduated from Arkhangelsk medical institute, in 2005 in absentia - St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Institute. In 1993, she was tonsured into a cassock; in 1996, into a mantle. From 1986 to 2012, she carried the obedience of a reader-singer in the church of St. Martin the Confessor (Arkhangelsk).

"One of Your Own Man in Heaven" is a long-awaited novel by a nun Evfimiya, a writer and doctor.

Chapter 1
Letter kills

"... the letter kills, but the spirit gives life."

2 Cor. 3, 6

1984 ... Sitting at the window of the bus, the intern doctor Nina Sergeevna N., whom her senior colleagues often called simply Nina, looked at the plain stretching along the road, overgrown with a rare pine forest mixed with stunted Christmas trees. Sad picture! But once upon a time, forests stretched here - impenetrable, majestic forests, for which the Mikhailovskaya region has long been famous. “In the North there is a board, melancholy and cod,” Nina recalled a proverb familiar from childhood about her native land. The cod was caught, the forests were cut down. What's left? Only a wasteland - a lifeless wasteland ... a deserted desert ... No, after all, not deserted. After all, somewhere here is a village with strange name Honga, where Nina is going...

- It was you who asked when Honga would arrive? came from behind her. - Yes, there she is!

Outside the window appeared one-story houses, bathhouses, fences. The bus stopped. Picking up her bag, Nina jumped clumsily off the footboard onto the side of the road, narrowly missing a roadside puddle. And the bus, wearily purring the engine, rolled on ...

* * *

Nina ended up in Hong not of her own free will, but at the behest of her superiors. Despite the fact that Mikhailovsk had its own medical institute, its graduates sought to get a job in the regional center at any cost. No one was eager to work in the unplowed field of rural medicine. Therefore, doctors from the regional hospital, where Nina underwent an internship in therapy, were constantly sent on business trips to villages and forest centers. Now it's her turn. Of course, since Nina was still an intern and did not have the right to work independently, she was sent to the Khongin hospital to help the only doctor there. Nevertheless, the girl had to live for a whole month away from home and, most importantly, away from the temple, where she went for the second year after she secretly received Baptism while in her fourth year of medical school. Of course, Nina took with her icons, the New Testament and a prayer book, for the purchase of which she heroically spent half of the scholarship in her time. And yet such a long separation from the temple weighed heavily on her. The only consolation left was that the venerable fathers of bygone times lived for years in deserts and forest thickets. And to hope - the Lord will count it as a feat in His name. Isn't it gratifying to feel like an ascetic?

* * *

- Tell me, where is your hospital? - Nina asked an old woman she met on the way in a dark green scarf and a worn sweatshirt.

“Where is it!” - She answered, pointing to a low hill, where one could see a one-story building, painted blue. - As you cross the river ... Our river is called Kurya ... this is because it gets shallower in summer - it’s just right for a chicken to cross ... So - as you cross it and climb up the hill, the first thing there will be mail. There she is! So the hospital is right behind her. And further away...

However, Nina did not waste time listening to an impromptu lecture on local geography, which the talkative old woman clearly intended to read to her. Muttering “thank you”, she walked to the bridge laid across ... perhaps the Kuryu River even now, during the spring flood, the notorious hen could easily ford ... And her casual companion stood for a long time and, shielding her eyes from the bright spring sun with her hand, looked at the departing stranger in city clothes. What to do - in these parts, guests from the city complained too rarely. And they usually don't stay long.

* * *

The local hospital turned out to be a slightly rickety building with a sloping roof and a mezzanine. Oddly enough, she had two porches at once - one on the right, the other on the left. And Nina stopped, like a fairy-tale hero in front of a roadside stone with a warning inscription: “If you go to the left, you will lose your horse, if you go to the right, you will lose your sword, if you go straight, you yourself will not live.” Where to go - to the right or to the left? After all, both porches are exactly the same ...

After some thought, Nina chose, so to speak, "the right way." After all, every Orthodox knows and remembers what fate awaits those whom the Lord will put on the Last Judgment to your left. Therefore, it is better to walk on the “right paths”. So Nina was taught by the old parishioners of the temple, where she went after baptism. On their way to the service, they tried to enter not through the wide-open church gates, but through the narrow gate to their right. They did not change this pious custom even in autumn, when a puddle of impressive size spilled right under the gate, or in winter, when the frost turned this natural reservoir into a real skating rink. Because they were sure - here it is, the notorious narrow and right path!

... As soon as Nina, under the treacherous creak of the floorboards, entered the corridor with half-whitewashed, half-painted dirty blue walls and many doors, she smelled the familiar hospital smell of medicines, bleach and burnt porridge. And then one of the doors opened. From it into the corridor, waddling like a duck, came out a short fat woman about forty in a white coat and stared at Nina unfriendly, frowningly:

- Where are you going? she muttered. – No visits today!

– I am a doctor from Mikhailovsk. I came here on a business trip,” Nina answered emphatically, perhaps even somewhat arrogantly. Because I immediately understood that the boorish person standing in front of her was a nurse or a nurse. In this case, the violator of official subordination should be put in her place ... - Where can I see your head physician?

It seems that the woman belonged to that kind of rude people, which is popularly called "well done against the sheep." She immediately flinched.

- Wait here. I’ll call him now,” she muttered and, looking through one of the doors, called in an undertone:

- Pavel Ivanovich! Here they come to you from the city!

- Now, Elena Vasilievna! Now I'm going! came from behind the door. Following that, a tall, stout man of about fifty with a round, youthfully ruddy face appeared on the threshold. He looked youthful. However, his short hair was completely gray. In addition, the head physician was heavily stooped, as if the ceilings and doorways here were too low for him. Or as if it had become a habit for him to be bent...

- You to me? he asked, peering warily at Nina through thick glasses. - What would you like? Ah... Were you sent here on a business trip? - At these words, he smiled affably, and his voice sounded soft, even somewhat playful. - That's it! Welcome then, colleague. You are most welcome. I'm here - one for all. And for the therapist, and for the surgeon, and for the neuropathologist. Why, I even remove my teeth! I still need helpers! Tomorrow we will start working together. Take a break today and take a look around. Come, I'll show you where you live. It's right here, just upstairs, on the mezzanine. Elena Vasilievna! he turned to the nurse, who was watching him and Nina vigilantly. Bring me the key to that room... And bedding. Just choose the one that is newer ... Of course, the atmosphere there is almost spartan. But you can live. The doctors who come to us usually live there. And they don't complain.

Now it became clear to Nina why the building of the local hospital has a second entrance. It leads to the second floor, where the local staff quarters. Conveniently thought up - went down the stairs to the street, went around the hospital building - and you are already at work! Although it is a pity that Nina will have to live next door not only to the amiable Pavel Ivanovich, but also to this rude nurse. An extremely unpleasant person!

In the meantime, the unpleasant person silently handed Nina a pile of clean linen, and Pavel Ivanovich a key on a makeshift ring made of aluminum wire.

- Let's go, Nina Sergeevna! - said the head physician with the courtesy of a hospitable host hosting a dear guest.

To the surprise of the girl, they did not have to go outside - the stairs that led up to the mezzanine were opposite the outer door.

* * *

- Well, here is your room, dear colleague! - Pavel Ivanovich opened the door wide in front of Nina, upholstered in shabby black oilcloth, from under which tattered dirty cotton wool peeked out through the holes. - Make yourself at home! Of course, you will be bored here alone - what can you do, there are no other living rooms here ... If you need something, find me or Elena Vasilievna. How can we help. In the meantime, if you'll excuse me, I'll leave you for a while and finish some business. Then I will return to you. Do you mind, colleague?

Left alone, Nina looked around. The decor of the room was indeed spartan. In the corner is a metal bed with a mattress that is not the first novelty and cleanliness. Near - round table with a shabby and scorched tabletop in places, a couple of rickety chairs. On one wall, covered in faded wallpaper, was a calendar from the year before last. The picture on it depicted the fabulous Lukomorye with the notorious green oak, a cat on a golden chain, a long-haired bluish mermaid and a young poet looking in amazement at all these wondrous miracles ... However, Nina was even delighted with such a wretched decoration of the room - almost a monastic cell. All that remained was to hang up the icons and lay out the prayer book and the New Testament from the bag.

Opening her travel bag, she took out Vladimir icon Mother of God in an oval plastic frame and a paper icon of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon pasted on a golden cardboard. Crossing herself and kissing the edges of the icons, Nina placed them on the windowsill, at the head of the bed. Then she spread a paper napkin on the table and carefully placed the New Testament and prayer book on them. And next to it is Sienkiewicz's novel Where Are You Going, which she recently bought. It must be said that Nina, like her neophyte co-religionists, was convinced that the Orthodox should not read secular books that kindle passions in a person, distracting from "the one thing that is needed." And therefore, having been baptized, she fearlessly got rid of the novels and detective stories she once loved, throwing them into the trash - and the road to all this sinful fiction is there! However, an exception was made for Sienkiewicz's book. After all, it told about the holy martyrs who suffered for Christ at the time of the wicked Nero. And Nina was very fond of reading the lives of the martyrs and confessors, admiring their exploits and secretly regretting that the Lord did not allow her to live in those days. Perhaps she, too, would become a martyr ...

Having made the bed, Nina sat down on a chair that creaked plaintively under it, thinking about what to do next. Perhaps, first of all, you need to warm up. It's too cold and damp in this room - it won't take long to catch a cold. Of course, there is a stove here, and behind it is a whole bunch of firewood. But Nina does not know how to heat stoves - after all, she has lived almost all her life in a house with steam heating. Of course, the saints endured much more severe colds, consoling themselves with the fact that "winter is fierce, but paradise is sweet." Still, the prospect of spending the night in an unheated room did not please Nina. Well, you'll have to sleep dressed and warm yourself with tea. Fortunately, on the advice of her mother, she took a mug and a kettle with her. But where is the faucet?

Instead of the desired faucet, a plastic washstand was found on the wall near the door, the only contents of which were a dead cockroach, probably dead of thirst. And behind the stove were two empty buckets. Apparently, the former inhabitants of this dwelling carried water in them. Picking up the rattling buckets, Nina descended the stairs, wondering as she went about how she could find out the location of the well. Will have to ask someone...

Going out into the hospital corridor, she looked into the first door that came across, and ...

- ... again, some one rolled up from the city ... - the sharp voice of Elena Vasilyevna reached Nina. The nurse was seated at a table covered in colorful oilcloth, next to a stove full of pots and kettles. Nearby, on a stool, perched a thin, sad woman - she looked about fifty, in a white coat and a white scarf tied up to her eyebrows. Apparently, it was the local cook. She listened to the nurse with a submissive air, periodically nodding her head, as if agreeing with her in everything.

Seeing Nina, Elena Vasilievna fell silent in mid-sentence and stared at her with the air of a man who has seen with his own eyes that the proverb is correct: do not remember, otherwise it will appear ...

“Excuse me, but where is your well?” Nina asked the nurse.

However, Elena Vassilyevna stared at her in fright, unable to utter words. Until the cook came to her aid.

“There is a well in the yard,” she answered, “when you go out into the street, turn right.” You will see him right away ... Wait a minute! You're probably hungry from the road! Here, drink some tea and eat pearl barley porridge ...

And before Nina had time to answer, she filled the plate with thick porridge with one stroke of the ladle and, limping, went to the stove for the kettle. And the nurse, with apparent reluctance, moved to make room for Nina at the table.

The hospital tea was too strong and unsweetened too. And Nina never had a special love for pearl barley. However, the food came in very handy - she warmed up and cheered up.

Meanwhile, the nurse studied Nina with her small penetrating eyes. Then she asked her:

- What kind of doctor are you? Therapist?

“No, I am a neuropathologist,” Nina answered not without pride. Like many of her colleagues, she was confident in the superiority of narrow specialists over therapists. And it exalted her in her own eyes ...

- Did you graduate from the local institute? the nurse inquired.

- And to us for a long time?

- For a month.

- Do you have a husband?

Nina almost choked on her porridge. What a faux pas! No, this impudent person should be put in her place! Now she will tell her...

- Ah, there you are, colleague!

Pavel Ivanovich entered the kitchen, smiling good-naturedly.

“I was looking for you upstairs!” And you are right here. I see Zoya Ivanovna (he nodded towards the cook) has already fed you. So how did you get there? Everything is fine? Do not need anything?

Thank you, Pavel Ivanovich! Nina replied. - Everything is great. Just cold...

- So turn on the stove! the head physician advised.

“I don’t know how…” Nina admitted.

– That's how! Pavel Ivanovich chuckled. - Well, then let's go! I will teach you to heat the stove - believe me, there is nothing tricky in this. Become a real stoker!

Nina's heart warmed from his words. Which wonderful person this Pavel Ivanovich! The very kindness and participation! Having hastily finished her tea, she followed him out of the kitchen, not noticing the hatred with which Elena Vasilievna was looking after her.

* * *

Do you see this door? Pavel Ivanovich explained in the tone of an experienced teacher. We put firewood here. When these run out, take from the woodpile in the yard. It is better to do this in advance so that they have time to dry thoroughly. And now we put forward the view: here it is, at the top, see? When the firewood burns out, it needs to be pushed back. Just don't go too early or you'll burn out. However, I'd rather take care of it myself at first. Will you allow me, colleague, if I become your personal instructor in furnace firing? So ... now we take matches ... Oh, that's bad luck, there is nothing for kindling! Well, you have to go to the attic!

I must say that in the novels and detective stories so beloved by Nina, in the attics of old mansions and castles, all kinds of fatal secrets and treasures were found, ghosts and other supernatural creatures settled there by the imagination of writers lived. It is not surprising that at the mention of the attic, Nina's heart fluttered in anticipation of a meeting with a secret ...

Alas, the bitterest disappointment awaited her: the hospital attic was littered with broken furniture, rusty buckets, pots with holes, half-rotten rags - in a word, all kinds of rubbish. But there were no secrets and treasures!

In the far corner of the attic, bundles of papers were piled up. Pavel Ivanovich, with youthful dexterity, picked up one of them, then another ...

- What it is? Nina inquired.

“Death certificates,” the head physician said casually. Or rather, copies of them. This waste paper is over thirty years old. What is she needed for? Only good for kindling...

Nina nodded in agreement. In fact, there is only one way for such rubbish - to the stove! That's how they treat him smart people... unlike romantic fools with an overly ardent imagination, who see fatal secrets everywhere!

She had no idea what mysteries could be hidden in old documents from hospital attics!

* * *

Sitting by the stove, Nina watched the red flames lick dry logs, and those, in response to their caress, make fire. From time to time she took another yellowish form, written in a clear, but uneven, obviously old man's handwriting. And, having run through it with her eyes, she threw it into the fire. Old paper flashed brightly and burned instantly. And Nina's hand reached for the next sheet ...

But what is? Not believing her eyes, the girl carefully re-read what she had just read: Ilya Nikolaevich Malkin. Profession: pop. He died on October 25, 1958 at the age of 73. Cause of Death: Killed by nerve exhaustion.

What nonsense? However, on the sheets that she had already sent to the stove, there were no less curious entries: “died from general decrepitude”, “from the decline of cardiac activity”. And yet here it was about death, which came, so to speak, due to natural causes. But what strange entry: "killed by exhaustion of nervous forces"? What lies behind this ambiguous wording? Death? Or is it murder?

- Well, colleague, how are you? came the voice of Pavel Ivanovich behind her. - Let me see if it's time to close the view ...

- Tell me, Pavel Ivanovich, who filled out these papers ... that is, these certificates? – in turn, asked Nina.

- Who knows! The head doctor waved his hand. - Apparently, some local paramedic, and part-time also a veterinarian. No, I didn’t even see him with my eyes ... It’s just - you see what these testimonies are written on? On the forms about the mating of livestock. This means that this rural doctor treated both bipeds and quadrupeds ... And he was a great original! He invented such diagnoses that at least send them to Krokodil. For example, "died of drowning." Or "death came as a result of a collision with a tree that fell on his head." Well, how do you like these pearls, colleague? Don't come up with it on purpose!

– And what do you say about it? Nina asked, handing him her find.

Running through my eyes cryptic lines Pavel Ivanovich shrugged his shoulders in bewilderment:

- Some kind of rubbish! Drunk he, or what, he invented it? Do not bother yourself with such nonsense, colleague! It's not worth it...

Oddly enough, this categorical assurance only strengthened Nina's guess - father Ilya Malkin did not just die. He was killed. However, judging by the ambiguous wording in his death certificate, it was to someone's advantage to explain his death as some kind of "depletion of nervous forces." However, it was not in vain that the Lord said: “There is nothing hidden that would not become obvious, and nothing is hidden that would not come out.” Isn't that why He sent Nina to Hongu to solve this old crime?

Well, God bless!

* * *

To begin with, Nina decided to outline a plan for future actions. After all, the heroes of her favorite detective stories and novels began with this. So…

In 1958, the priest Ilya Malkin was killed in Hong ...

But if there was a priest in the village, then somewhere there is a church. Well, tomorrow Nina will find her. After all, where is the best place to start an investigation into the murder of a priest, if not from the church where he once served? Perhaps she will even be able to find people there who remember Father Elijah. And they know who killed him and why...

... That evening, tired from an excess of impressions, Nina Sergeevna went to bed early and slept soundly without dreams. That is why she did not hear how someone stealthily approached her door, listened and, having thrust some tiny object into the door crack, went away.

* * *

The next morning, leaving her room, Nina noticed that some piece of paper, neatly folded into a tube, was lying on the floor. She picked up the makeshift scroll, unfolded it...

On the paper, in block letters, was written:

"Beware!"

What is this? Warning? Threat? Full! Who can threaten her? And for what reason? After all, she doesn’t know anyone here ... Some kind of stupid prank ... In this case, you should not pay attention to him and thereby give an unknown amusing person a reason to repeat the joke. Henceforth it will be disrespectful…

And yet - who decided to play a trick on her?

* * *

First of all, Nina decided to find Pavel Ivanovich. She did this without difficulty - the door to the chief physician's office was wide open. And he himself was sitting at the window and seemed to be completely immersed in the contemplation of the rising sun. However, this did not prevent him from noticing Nina, as soon as she timidly stepped over the threshold of his office. Turning to the girl, the head doctor smiled affably at her:

– Good morning, colleague! So, how did you sleep in your new place? Not frozen?

- Thank you! Nina replied, touched by his participation. - All just great!

- Well, then let's get to work, - said the head physician, - now we'll make the rounds together. Then you will do it yourself. If you have any difficulties, please contact me. In the meantime, I'll take care of the outpatient appointment. The dispensary is on the left side of the building,” he explained, catching Nina’s questioning glance. - There will be a desire - come. Look at the dispensary, otherwise you will help me ... Now let's go!

* * *

Together they went into the wards, and Pavel Ivanovich talked with each patient, examined him, made appointments. Behind him, holding a homemade notebook, made from half a school notebook in a box, Elena Vasilievna followed the shadow. The nurse looked at the chief physician with dog-like subservience, catching his every word. However, this did not prevent her from under her brows angrily looking at Nina. However, the girl pretended not to notice this. After all, hatred, envy, intrigues are the lot of unbelieving people. Let this impudent, unceremonious rude woman come out with malice, like a toad with poison! And she lives according to the commandments of Christ, which prescribe to love even her enemies and overcome evil with good! Thank God that she is not like Elena Vasilievna!

* * *

So they went around six wards - three for men and two for women - and came to the door at the very end of the hospital corridor, next to the toilet. Pavel Ivanovich cautiously opened it, peered inside, and just as noiselessly shut it again.

- Sleep! he said quietly. - Well, so much the better. This, colleague, is our special ward… so to speak, the local ward number six… remember, Chekhov has such a story? There are two lonely old women lying there. One has a metastasis to the spine, the other has dementia. They are not accepted into the nursing home. So they live here, as if in an almshouse. Of course, they have medical records for pro forma. I write them myself. Believe me, colleague: these old women are absolutely uninteresting as patients. In addition, there is nothing to help them. So you should not waste your time on them and come here.

Nina was somewhat jarred at the words of the head physician. After all, she has not forgotten the lessons medical ethics and deontology - the patient is not just a "case", but a living suffering person. However, it seems that Pavel Ivanovich is cunning. Because he does not want to shift all the work onto the shoulders of a young colleague, as some of the doctors do in the regional hospital where Nina works. They instruct the interns to take care of all their patients, while they themselves are chasing tea in the staff room, chatting about this and that - in a word, they are messing around. If only they were at least a little like the intelligent, sympathetic Pavel Ivanovich!

…After the detour, hungry Nina hurried to the kitchen, from where the seductive smell of meat cabbage soup wafted throughout the hospital. Zoya Ivanovna poured her a full plate of hot, fragrant brew. Nina, out of habit, looked for the icon in the corner with her eyes, but, not finding it, she read a prayer in a whisper, crossed herself (fortunately the cook turned away at that time), made the sign of the cross on the plate and began to eat.

While she was eating cabbage soup, and then cod with mashed potatoes, washing it down with tea, Zoya Ivanovna sat silently nearby, arms folded like a woman's on her stomach. Nina felt her gaze on her. Well, a new arrival is always a curiosity. Look how the nurse interrogated her yesterday! “What kind of doctor will you be? Do you have a husband?" Well, at least the cook is not one of the curious ... and yet this seemingly downtrodden and submissive woman is clearly on her mind. After all, it is not in vain that they say: in a still whirlpool ...

At that moment, Nina's thoughts took a different turn. What if you ask the cook where the local church is? After all, she certainly knows this ...

“Tell me, Zoya Ivanovna…” Nina began, “but where are you here…”

She did not have time to finish her sentences - Elena Sergeevna burst into the kitchen and, with a displeased look, plopped down on a stool that creaked plaintively under her.

- You didn’t wear lunch at BAM? she asked the cook. - And then these grandmothers, it seems, woke up. Now they will start yelling again ... how tired they are of me! If only they could die sooner...

The cook rattled the dishes as she filled the plates. And Nina hastened to leave. This vixen managed to appear at such an inopportune moment! As a result, Nina will have to look for the local church herself. However, it's for the best. There is no need to dedicate outsiders to your affairs. Especially when it comes to a murder investigation.

* * *

However, to begin with, Nina decided to do more pressing business and find a well. She coped with this task brilliantly. Fortunately, the well log house darkened from time could not be noticed except by the blind. Immediately, a lopsided pile of firewood was discovered. Well, there is water and firewood. Now you can start looking for the church. But where do they start?

Nina looked around. Behind the hospital was a dark forest, where a narrow dirt road led. Melt water glittered in the ruts left by the wheels. No, this road does not lead to the temple - apparently, the locals go to this forest for firewood. And the church is in the village. Where else could she be?

Nina walked around the village until dusk. I looked into the village store, where bottles of vodka peacefully coexisted on the shelves with three-liter cans of birch sap and tins of canned seaweed. I found a tightly boarded village club, on the wall of which hung a poster, faded from time and rain, with the inscription "We will come to the victory of communism." I admired the openwork carvings on the house, surrounded by a low but solid fence - it looks like it was someone's dacha, and next to it - another one. Apparently, one of the local residents sold their houses to visiting summer residents, lovers of rustic exoticism. Well, no wonder - there is a direct road from Mikhailovsk to Hongi, and the bus runs twice a day ...

Nina walked around Honga far and wide. However, the church was never found. However, Nina was resolute. Tomorrow she will continue her search. And he will lead them until he finds out who and why killed Father Elijah. Until the truth is known!

* * *

When Nina approached the hospital building, it was already completely dark. Climbing up the creaky stairs, she went into her room, took off her jacket and, sitting on the bed, reread Father Elijah's death certificate. Who could have killed the priest? And is a person still alive who dared to commit such a great sin?

And then ... Nina shuddered: a muffled creak of floorboards was heard in the corridor. Who is this? What does he want here? What if this is the same person who once killed Father Elijah? He is afraid that Nina will expose him. And he decided to deal with her.

“Knock-knock-knock…” – through the frantic beating of her heart, Nina barely heard a quiet, cautious knock on the door. Fair man I would never have surrounded my parish with such ominous secrecy. So the killer is behind the door. Lord, what to do?!

How many times Nina regretted that she was not born during the time of persecution of Christians! And he cannot testify his fidelity to the Savior by martyrdom for Him. But now, when death was knocking at her door, she realized for the first time how much she loves life and does not want to part with it ...

- Who's there? - out of fear, Nina tried to speak as loudly and sharply as possible. - What you need?

It's me, colleague! May I come to you?

“And I was looking for you, colleague,” the head doctor said with a good-natured grin, entering the room and looking around with an attentive look. Here his eyes rested on the icons that stood on the windowsill, on the New Testament and the prayer book lying on the table ... However, Nina did not notice this. After all, she was so glad that her fears for own life turned out to be in vain ... - Where did you disappear to?

“I went to the village,” Nina Sergeevna honestly admitted.

– That's how! The chief physician chuckled. - Did you get acquainted, so to speak, with local attractions? It seems that you did it very carefully - Elena Sergeevna told me that you left immediately after dinner ...

That's how! It turns out that the nurse is watching her! Here's a spy!

In that case, why not tell him that she was looking for the church here? Or is it better to remain silent? After all, then Nina will have to reveal her secret to Pavel Ivanovich: she is a believer. And it's not safe. Look what troubles a fifth-year student from the medical school, who married a deacon, had recently! The girl was immediately expelled from the Komsomol, and then bowed and conjugated at all meetings. It was rumored that she was threatened with expulsion from the institute. And although this still did not happen, the newly-appeared mother-deaconess sipped plenty of grief ... Although Pavel Ivanovich can be trusted ... Or is it not worth it to dedicate him to your secret for the time being? Perhaps so...

An intern is a medical school graduate who completes a one-year internship in a hospital or clinic under the guidance of one of the doctors before starting to work independently. This internship is called an internship.

. “Where are you going” (in Slavonic - “Kamo are coming”) is a novel by a Polish classic writer of the 19th century. Henryk Sienkiewicz from the time of Emperor Nero. The plot is based on the love story of the pagan warrior Mark Vinicius for the young Christian Lygia and his conversion to Christ.

The spiritual meaning of the word "tenderness" denotes the state of the human soul at the moment of contact of his heart with the grace of the Holy Spirit. This moment - in its highest, incomparable, "all-true, more than human mind" manifestation - is captured in the image of the "Tenderness of the Mother of God". On the icon is not just the contact of the heart of the Blessed Virgin with the grace of the Holy Spirit, but some incomprehensible action of His, which gave to all mankind the Son of God, incarnated in the form of a human for the salvation of mankind from sin and death...

One of the most significant images of the Mother of God “Tenderness” is Seraphim-Diveevsky, called “Joy of all joys”. Before this icon, the Monk Seraphim of Sarov performed his last prayer on earth. Subsequently, it became the main shrine of Diveyevo, during the years of repressions it was sacredly kept by faithful Christians and is now waiting for its return to its native monastery.

In anticipation of the coming of the long-awaited "Supreme Abbess" of the Diveevo monastery in 2009, a new copy of the "Tenderness" icon was ordered. Placed in a carved kiot, it was first installed in the Kazan Cathedral of the Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery. In the summer of 2010, fires raged in Russia, smog hung over Moscow and Diveevo. Kazan Cathedral, where the image "Tenderness" was located, was closed for repairs at that time. The icon turned out to be cut off from the prayerful life of the people, "humiliated," in the words of Metropolitan Euphemia. And for the summer holiday of the Monk Seraphim, she was transferred to the Kanavka of the Mother of God. Whole waves of pilgrims filled Diveevo this summer. People stood for half an hour to venerate the icon of the Queen of Heaven...

This wonderful list from the “Tenderness” icon appeared in Diveevo through the zeal of a reverent worshiper of the Monk Seraphim and the holy image of the Mother of God, nun Evfemia (in the world of Vera Konstantinovna Semenyak) revered by him, and her many collaborators in the “good public cause” - the spiritual children of the elder Archimandrite Ippolit (Khalina ) († December 17, 2002) . They cannot be counted - Claudia, Lydia, Nadezhda, John, Roman, Olga, Oleg, Igor, Tigriy, Karina, Galina, Marina, Gennady, Alexy, Maxim ... All of them are in the heart and prayer of mother, together with relatives and friends and all those with whom the Lord united her on the long path of life.

Father Ippolit, the first rector of the revived Kursk Rylsky Monastery, was called the "Athos elder". A student of the Glinsk Elders, a tonsurer of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, the priest for eighteen years labored in the Athos Panteleimon Monastery. In 1984, Fr. Ippolit, due to illness, returned to Russia and served in the churches of the Kursk diocese, and then became the first rector of the resurgent Rylsky St. monastery. Vera Konstantinovna at that time lived with her family in Kursk and found in the elder a wise mentor and prayer book. The elder strongly supported her in difficult family circumstances - she had a seriously ill husband, Peter Pavlovich, who never managed to recover after being seriously wounded during the Great Patriotic War. After the death of her husband in 1986, Vera Konstantinovna herself remained seriously ill, no doctors were able to help ... The Lord helped. With the blessing of Father Ippolit, Vera Konstantinov took monastic vows with the name of Euphemia, and a few years later she moved to Diveevo.

Matushka Euphemia is a completely legendary and… unknown person as a true servant of Jesus Christ, who made His earth path V in the form of a slave…

But let's start from the beginning, or rather, almost from the beginning, from the first days of the Great Patriotic War.

Sixteen-year-old Vera Konstantinovna served as a free-lance nurse in the hospital of her native village of Andreevka (Kharkiv region), where the 308th medical battalion of the 267th rifle division was located at that time. The wounded arrived daily, there was a lot of work. In the wards, even in the corridor, there were seriously wounded, who were brought straight from the trenches - the front line passed not far from the village. Blood for the wounded was donated by their own soldiers. One day, a tall, heroic build, with big eyes, like on an icon, came to donate blood, a soldier. It was Pyotr Pavlovich Semenyak - the future husband of Vera Konstantinovna ...

Pyotr Pavlovich was a native of Kursk, the youngest son in a family that gave the Fatherland six defenders - six of his sons. Vera Konstantinovna was destined to enter this valiant family.

After being wounded on the Dnieper, Pyotr Pavlovich was taken to the hospital, where, also after being wounded, Vera Konstantinovna was also ... At the end of the war, Pyotr Pavlovich graduated from the Kharkov Veterinary Institute, and Vera Konstantinovna graduated from the teacher's institute. A few years later, the family moved to Kursk.

Vera Konstantinovna devoted forty-one years and nine months to teaching, teaching Russian language and literature to schoolchildren (and in the early years, living in Ukraine, she also Ukrainian language and literature). The husband returned from the war seriously wounded, underwent seven operations, became an invalid of the first group. A loving selfless wife, who was always there, helped to survive the illness and life's troubles. The couple raised and raised five children - two sons and three daughters. All of them received medical education. The sacrificial everyday work of Vera Konstantinovna was awarded with awards - the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War" (1945), the "Medal of Motherhood" (1961) ...

In children, grandchildren, in her husband, who died from front-line wounds, in his brothers, in general, in his heroic, truly epic Russian family, almost her entire worldly life passed - a worthy, difficult, courageous life. It was only by the grace of God that it was possible to survive all the trials, to endure all the labors, to fulfill one's sacred duty.

M. Euphemia has been a believer since her childhood. Born in the family of a hereditary doctor Rozhkin Konstantin Nikolayevich, she visited churches from childhood. She always aspired to the shrine - even during the years of Soviet power she traveled to the holy places of Russia and the whole world, visited the Holy City of Jerusalem several times. While living in Kursk, back in the 1970s, she became intimately acquainted with the apostle Angelina, who not only helped her spiritually strengthen herself, but also taught her the art of gold embroidery. Since then, mother has been embroidering, decorating icons - and, with the participation of her assistants, sending them as gifts to monasteries and churches. Her gifts are not only in Russian monasteries, but also in the Holy Land and on Mount Athos...

Mother in life is a fighter. All her life she strove to bring the gospel good news into the world in word and deed - through reverence, mercy, kindness, love. To work for the strengthening and glorification of the Orthodox faith - "as high as the stars, strong by the grace of the Holy Sacraments, the eternal eternity of the Kingdom of Heaven" - such was the testament of her spiritual father.

With God, nothing is random. In mother’s zeal for the shrine, for the holy icons of the Mother of God, especially for the “Joy of all joys” - “Seraphim-Diveevo Tenderness” - the secret aspiration of her soul is clearly revealed, through immeasurable sorrows and patience of long and difficult years, drawn to grace, seeking tenderness ... The soul longs for the touch of God, longs to find Christ and be with Him in eternity...

Publications:

After the closing of the monastery in 1927, the icon, along with the royal robe, presented by Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II in 1903, was taken to Murom by mother abbess Alexandra: here mother settled in a small house near the walls of the Annunciation monastery, many Diveyevo sisters also moved here. The precious riza was buried in the garden. After the death of m. Alexandra (†1942), the icon and other valuables were kept by her cell-attendant, nun Maria Barinova. In the 1940s, Hieromonk Pimen (the future Patriarch) served in the only surviving church in the city of Murom, to whom the mothers told about the shrines they kept. Having become the Patriarch, he blessed Father Viktor Shipovalnikov (†2007) to take them for safekeeping. Kratovo near Moscow. Through the efforts of Victor, the royal robe was restored, which had lain in the ground for many years. After the second acquisition of the relics of St. Seraphim in 1991, Fr. Victor handed over the icon, along with all other valuables, to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. Currently, the icon "Serafimo-Diveevo Tenderness" is kept in the Cross Church of the Patriarchal Residence in Chisty Lane in Moscow.

Our guest was a doctor, a writer, a nun Evfimiya (Pashchenko).
We talked about the literary work of our guest, about the Orthodox content of works of art, and whether a Christian book can be not just a sermon, but a really interesting work.

_______________________________________________________________

V. Emelyanov

Hello, this is bright evening"! In the studio Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova.

A. Mitrofanova

Good bright evening!

V. Emelyanov

Our guest today is the nun Evfimiya Pashchenko, writer and doctor. Hello mother!

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Hello! Good evening everyone!

Our dossier:

Nun Evfimiya Pashchenko. Born in Arkhangelsk in 1964. Graduated from the Arkhangelsk State Medical Institute. She worked as a therapist in a nursing home. In 1981 she graduated from correspondent courses at the editorial office of the regional newspaper Pravda Severa. Since that time, she has been published in the regional newspaper. Author of a number of scientific papers on gerontology of the European North of Russia and local history. She took monastic vows in 1993. Graduated from St. Tikhon's Theological Institute in absentia. In 2012 she moved to Moscow. Works as a neurologist. Author of more than 150 stories and articles on local history and literary subjects, as well as a number of books in the genre of detective and fantasy.

V. Emelyanov

You won’t believe it - I fell asleep yesterday, and I wanted to meet with the editor, the producer of our program, I wanted to ask him, I remember this very well: “Why don’t we have mothers? I mean, they do happen, but very rarely. For example, you are my first guest, a nun, personally with me. Here, it was worth thinking last night - please! (They laugh.) Mother, you are originally by education, you are a doctor.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Initially, yes. By first education I am a doctor.

V. Emelyanov

What medical specialty are you?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Neurologist.

V. Emelyanov

And now you work as a neurologist?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

And now I work as a neurologist in one of the Moscow polyclinics.

V. Emelyanov

You were born far in the north, in Arkhangelsk.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes, this is my home.

V. Emelyanov

And your works - to my shame, I have not read a single one, but I have read about the works. Most of them, so to speak, are dedicated to the northern Arkhangelsk region. And we know that this is an amazing nature. Please tell us a little about your life in Arkhangelsk.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

It was the most ordinary life. That is, she was born, then she studied at school first, then at the institute, then she was baptized, then she went to church, then she sang in the church, taught Sunday school, and taught at theological courses. Life was the most ordinary - that is, my life is generally rather poor in events, since, probably, it is more such an internal, creative life. You can see it in my texts. That is, yes, the city of Arkhangelsk is described, however, this is not quite Arkhangelsk. This is a certain city of Mikhailovsk, Arkhangelsk is guessed in it, because my hometown is named after the Archangel of God Michael. And on November 21, according to the new style, the name day of my hometown. It can be guessed, but our city is the most ordinary - a quiet, calm, provincial city with a measured life. Unfortunately, this old place of ours was originally Arkhangelsk, it is now gradually disappearing, collapsing, wooden houses are being replaced by stone ones. The legendary wooden pavements are almost a thing of the past. Well, yes, Arkhangelsk is known for the fact that there are wooden pavements, the roads were paved with boards.

V. Emelyanov

And yards, by the way, too.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

And yards.

V. Emelyanov

We can remind our listeners that you can see this very well in the film "Love and Doves", because it was all filmed on your land, on Arkhangelsk. And there is just this wooden flooring in their yard. I don't know why? Maybe your feet are cold. Why?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

No, because we have swamps, mud. And in spring, and in autumn, and during floods, during snowmelt, during rains, of course, the roads became limp and swollen. And to go through them, it's hard enough. Recently, by the way, one of the pop groups in Arkhangelsk voiced this very interestingly, they released the video “City in the North of the Country”. And here the road is shown, unpaved, broken, with puddles, in these puddles the artists dip each other with self-forgetfulness. So this road is located in the very center of the city of Arkhangelsk. Yes, it has been preserved. There is a construction going on now, so, in general, it is not surprising that it has not been paved yet. But this road was like this before, when there were wooden houses.

A. Mitrofanova

You, being a local historian, write about such roads? No. You are writing about something else.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Naturally.

A. Mitrofanova

What is the most important thing for you? Yes, tell me.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

The most important? It's hard for me to say. Most likely, the most important thing, as, in general, in the work of any Orthodox author, and not only Orthodox, but a believing author, who may not even position himself as Orthodox. After all, Pushkin did not position himself, for example, as an Orthodox writer, but he has it. It is the relationship of man with God. The relationship of man with God, and the relationship of man with people. That is, this is exactly what the Savior says: "Love God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." This is the main thing in my texts. But the fact is that these relations of people with God, and with their neighbors, are built in my texts in different ways. And depending on what is most important for a person - God, neighbor, or he loves himself beloved. This is how the story ends - that is, either this is a collapse, this is a life drama, or this is a victory.

A. Mitrofanova

When it comes to victory, what do you mean by this word? Here, too... You see how - in our literature, especially in that segment of modern literature called Orthodox literature, it often happens that you read a work and there is a feeling that the author knows all the answers in advance. The reader, so to speak, is undisguisedly led to these ready-made answers. There are no elements of artistic search there, and therefore the works are more like a sermon than actually some kind of artistic creation. How do you solve the problem for yourself, especially in terms of winning? After all, it's no secret that it's difficult, probably, to show an artist - how to say? - good ending so that it would not be so too blissful, in the event that we are talking about such subtle matters as faith. Where there is conflict, everything is clear; where everything is blissful and good, questions arise.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

You know, for me, the topic that you have just raised, it has been standing for a very long time, since childhood. I love to remember this example. This is not my work, this is the work of Hans Christian Andersen, the most Christian fairy tale writer. He has such a fairy tale "The Little Mermaid", and we all read it in childhood. In a censored version. The story is well-known - the Little Mermaid fell in love with the prince, went to a series of sacrificial deeds so that the prince fell in love with her. But the prince did not love her. And the Little Mermaid rejected the last chance to leave, save her life at the cost of killing the prince, and died herself - she dissolved, turned into sea foam. tragic end absolutely tragic. But the fact is that in fact "The Little Mermaid" is "a fairy tale with good ending". If you read it in its original version, without censorship, without edits, it is about something else - this is a story about the transformation of a mermaid into a person, let's say, about the formation of a person. About how to become a man. And the main goal of the Little Mermaid was by no means the love of the prince, she wanted to become a man. To be more precise, get immortal soul. Yes, the prince did not like her. Yes, she died. But the Lord rewarded her sacrifice, and the Little Mermaid got a chance to gain an immortal soul after some centuries. This a happy ending. Because, having lost something secondary - yes, the love of a prince is secondary, she gained the most important thing - she gained an immortal soul, she will find paradise. The fact is that I am still a person of the Soviet generation, of a Soviet upbringing. In those days, such a theme was often heard in literature - the theme moral victory hero. The hero could be killed, but, nevertheless, he died not conquered, he died without betraying himself. If we give this a religious context... Well, actually, take the lives of the holy martyrs. After all, they are dying! After all, they are killed terribly, cruelly, painfully. And, nevertheless, the end of such lives, the lives of the martyrs, the lives of the saints, he is happy, this end. Because life on earth is temporary, but there it is eternal. And this is exactly the theme in my texts often sounds. That is, a person seems to be unhappy, but in fact he is happy, because he won the most important victory that a person can win - to remain himself, to remain with God, to find paradise.

A. Mitrofanova

Thank you for such an answer. I am pleased to hear that we are talking about a victory of a completely different kind. And about “The Little Mermaid”… If, you understand, if in childhood we read not a reduced version, but this real one, then in the minds of many modern women there would not be this list, very serious, related to the fact that love is necessarily a sacrifice and I will only be happy if I get hurt. You know, such a masochistic perception of life, it is laid down by fairy tales. And about the "Mermaid" modern psychologists are very indignant. If they knew her in the original version, I think the conversation would be quite different.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

You know, there was actually another book that many of us have read, especially people of an older generation than you and me. This is Uncle Tom's Cabin.

V. Emelyanov

An excellent book.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

It's the same topic there. We were told that Uncle Tom is an unrequited downtrodden lackey, a serf. Who allows himself to be offended, humiliated, who allows himself to be killed. But in reality this true christian. And here, by the way, is the chapter in which the planter Legree, the last owner of Uncle Tom, offers Uncle Tom a choice - either a painful death at the hands of his servants Sambo and Quimbo, or betrayal. Uncle Tom must give the whereabouts of the two runaway slaves, he knows where the women hid. They hid in the attic of Legree's house. But he refuses to give them up. And this chapter about the death of Uncle Tom, it is called "Victory", and the epigraph to this chapter, he really was published in Soviet time, the words: "Thanks be to God who gave us the victory." Here's how! We've all read Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is clear that we were not told about this - that this book is religious, that it is about a moral victory. But on a subconscious level, it is. Yes, we were brought up on other books, but, nevertheless, the same theme - the moral victory of the hero. Buy yourself a life at the cost of betrayal, or "die yourself, but help out a comrade." Let's just say, at least. Well, as for this sadomasochistic attitude to life - you understand, this is a kind of narcissism, self-possession.

A. Mitrofanova

By the way, definitely yes.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

To pretend to be a martyr, to pretend to be a sufferer, to arouse the interest of compassion - this is acting, this is a game. No more. That is, the Little Mermaid is here, believe me, nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing to do with it. It's just a game. At one time, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov spoke very impartially about women. But you see, he was partly right, because three passions are manifested with special force in women - vanity, voluptuousness and slyness. The last one covers the first two. Indeed, deceit.

A. Mitrofanova

Nun Evfimiya Pashchenko - writer, doctor, today in the program "Bright Evening" on the radio "Vera". We continue talking about books. We have already talked about fairy tales, now it's time to move on, I think, to other genres that you use and master. You write detective stories and fiction, right?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes, detectives and fantasy.

A. Mitrofanova

And fantasy, still fantasy. A nun who writes detective stories - this is your father Brown, right?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

No, it's not Father Brown. And actually, I write detective stories, but the heroes of these detective stories are by no means monastic people, but Orthodox, and not only Orthodox. Well, these are, let's say, detective stories from the life of the God-saved city of Mikhailovsk. In general, when I started writing them, I didn’t think that it would develop into a whole local history detective series, which now has about a dozen texts. Actually, the first story, it was called "Witnesses", was about how a certain Orthodox woman Nina Sergeevna, a doctor, by the way, who writes articles and stories for the Mikhailov diocesan messenger. Some mistakenly identify this Nina Sergeevna with me, in fact, this is more of a caricature of me. Decides to investigate the story of the death of a priest during the persecution of the faith. During interrogation, the priest confessed that he organized an anti-Soviet group in the village, through the efforts of which an anti-Soviet gathering was organized in the same village. And so the priest was arrested after this meeting, and died in the camps. She then interviews several people who either knew the priest or heard about him from their parents. And it turns out a completely different story. Although, it would seem - yes, the martyr, organized resistance to the godless authorities. But the story is something else. The story of how a priest who was not loved in the village, who was bullied - he drank - defended the arrested peasants. The gathering was arranged by the peasants, the priest did not participate in it, he had nothing to do with this gathering. But he declared himself the organizer of this meeting, hoping that then the peasants would be released, he decided to take the blame. Take on the guilt of the people who offended him, who oppressed him, who did not love him. This is a feat. But this is a feat of a different kind. Maybe even more than the one that was originally presented to Nina Sergeevna. Because a person did not just go to death for friends, he went to death for those who were his enemies and who were hostile to him. Then there was a whole series of more stories and stories, there was even such a tragicomic story "The Poisoned Spring", about how Nina Sergeevna, along with her former colleague, and now a priest father Alexander, tried to arrange on the island of Likhostrov, which was nearby, across the river from the city of Mikhailovsk, in fact it is Kegostrov, this is a real island - she tried to organize a parish there. The fact is that the priest and Nina Sergeevna had not so much plans to enlighten the local inhabitants with the light of the Christian faith, not so much to save them from total drunkenness and despair. Because the inhabitants of Likhostrov had no work, the sawmill was closed there, the people drank too much. This is a real life story.

V. Emelyanov

This is basically our real life.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes. But why "Poisoned Spring"? The fact is that this work is such a kind of polemical response to the story of one of my contemporaries, a familiar Orthodox writer, who was called "The Holy Spring". Where two women solved all their personal spiritual problems by finding a holy spring abandoned in the village. And here the source is poisoned. Yes, there is a legend about a miraculous source, but it's about something completely different. What is this poisoned source? And these are hearts. The heart of Nina Sergeevna, and the heart of Father Alexander. After all, they did not care about the fact that on Kegostrov people returned to God, people turned to God, people finally found meaning, the hope of life. They cared about their own benefit. And poisoned water flows from a poisoned spring. And from a heart in which passions are teeming, nothing good will come of it. These are again the well-known words of the Savior, that filth comes out of the human heart from within. Sinful passions are a poisoned source.

V. Emelyanov

Mother, tell me, please, have you been offered to write a script, to film your books? Because you tell these stories and write these amazing stories, and our television is very greedy for such things. (Laugh.)

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Well, I will hope, with God's help, that someday there will be a person who will make this series based on detective stories, precisely on the realities of the city of Arkhangelsk. I will hope so. If the Lord willing, there may be such a producer.

V. Emelyanov

I have another question - tell me, please, here you are a doctor. And yet you take it so seriously writing, creativity. But the doctor, in your opinion, is this a creative profession?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Certainly. I think so.

V. Emelyanov

I think so too. And why do you think so? (Laugh.)

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

I think so, because the work of a doctor, even a polyclinic, ideally is the work of an artist. The work of a writer, yes. That is, when you apply to a person individual approach. This does not mean that I treat each patient taking into account all his features. There is no time for appointment. But when collecting an anamnesis, when examining, you naturally take into account the characteristics of the personality of this person, the organism of this person, age, allergic history, concomitant diseases, and then ...

V. Emelyanov

This is your reception - I apologize, I interrupt, then the reception should last an hour and a half per person. And how do you cope with these 12-15 minutes now laid down?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Skill, skill. I have a lot of practice, I have a lot of experience.

V. Emelyanov

It's true, yes.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

So it's natural that I pay attention to details. That is, the experience of old doctors comes to the rescue here. Who knew how to diagnose a patient by seeing how he holds himself, how he enters the office, how he looks, how he speaks. By the way, this method still works in many cases. And it happens that when you ask a person questions about the course of his illness, it turns out that their causes are spiritual. No, this is not at all about the fact that for this or that sin a person suffers this or that disease. But, you know, I love this example from the life of St. Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky, it is a textbook. When a young girl, a surgeon, his colleague, came to see him and said that she was suffering from neurasthenia, they described the symptoms of this disease - yes, everything converged. I don’t want to live, longing, there is no desire to do anything. But Saint Luke, he was wise man. He asked her, a very strange question he asked her - was it a question about how she lives? What are her vital interests? It turned out that the interests come down to two things - first of all, surgery, and a little bit of art. She apparently added this out of delicacy. And Saint Luke exclaimed: “How? Do you live only by surgery? But it’s also impossible!” You see, the tragedy of people often lies in the fact that they go into their illness, go into their everyday problems, drown in them. They don't try to change the situation, they don't try to distract themselves, to have fun, they don't try to get out of this swamp, from under this blanket where they hide and shiver. I'm not talking now about the most important thing - that they are in no hurry to go to church, pray, confess, take communion. This is the most important thing, and this is also not.

A. Mitrofanova

It happens that a person comes to the temple, confesses, takes communion, but he does not get better. Here is what you described with the word "swamp", probably, there are stronger definitions - hell inside, for example.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes, as far as I remember, Richard Bach in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The hell you created inside of you.

A. Mitrofanova

Quite right. And you know, one way or another, we are people living in the rhythm of the metropolis, big city- periodically we feel this state in ourselves. And these are things that, it seems to me, they are not always decided by coming to the temple. They sometimes require the intervention of professional doctors. And wise priests just do not deny that both psychologists and neuropathologists, professional specialists in this sense, can come to their aid. But confession and communion, of course, is the basis of life for any person who considers himself a Christian or would like to be one. But still, it seems to me, some kind of balance must be observed. The fact that you are also a doctor is so interesting to me. Do your patients know that you have such a spiritual life? What books do you write?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Hardly ever. I don't advertise it.

A. Mitrofanova

So you accept patients in medical uniform?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Of course of course!

A. Mitrofanova

In medical attire, I almost said.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

In a white coat, with a hammer in his hand. Certainly!

V. Emelyanov

Why a hammer? I don't understand.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

And the neurologist checks reflexes.

V. Emelyanov

And it needs to be what? or what was not?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Well, these are the nuances of the inspection. But the bottom line is that a neurologist is entitled to a hammer. This is the only doctor who can beat a patient with a hammer at an appointment. (They laugh.) I have an interesting hammer, I'm sorry I didn't bring it. There I also made a funny engraving on the handle, people are watching, smiling. On the one hand, "We are blacksmiths, and our spirit is young", on the other hand, "We forge the keys of happiness." (Laugh.)

A. Mitrofanova

I would like to return to the topic that we touched on in the previous question. You retold the plot of your story about Nina Sergeevna. And I was just looking at the headline “A zealot of truth, or not knowing the ford” - your story is prosaic, which describes the situation with Abbot Gennady, in the world Yuri Plotnikov, who, in his style, reminded me of what you are talking about. A man in rank, he is a monk, while, as you write in black and white, he was not looking for a monastic life, but was looking for a quick career advancement. You yourself are a nun, you write about such things. Just now you were telling a story about a priest who was also looking for not ... How to say this? - not pastoral ministry, but something completely different. Excuse me, they don’t say anything for such things to you? When did you start writing all this?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Sometimes I've heard comments like this. But the fact is that it all depends on the degree of adequacy of the reader. Because the most impartial book that shows the infirmities of believers is Holy Bible is the Old and New Testament. Where we see throughout the Old Testament how the people chosen by God constantly renounce God, betray Him, indulge in various sins, large and small. And all this ends, we know what - the murder of the incarnated for us and ours for the sake of the salvation of the Son of God. It's scary, that's where it's scary! By the way, two wonderful works have been written on this plot, on the plot of the execution of the Savior by people. More precisely, one, and the second is part of another work of a large, well-known to everyone. I'm talking about Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov", where there is a chapter "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor". When Christ comes again into the world, and finds himself in the dungeons of the Inquisition. The inquisitor says to him: "Why did you come?"

A. Mitrofanova

"We've got on very well here without you."

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

- “We have already decided everything, we already rule the ball without you, but we don’t need you.” And there is a second work, more tendentious, this is the “Second Crucifixion of Christ” by Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky. Where Christ the Savior is crucified shortly after the Holy Resurrection of Christ. Orthodox Christians, by the way. That is... No, you see, I don't think that there is criticism or condemnation of believers in these texts - no. Any more or less adequate person has met with the so-called "bad" believers who tempt their co-religionists, and looking at whom ...

A. Mitrofanova

Especially for non-believers.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

- ... unbelieving people say: "We will not go to the temple, because there are such people!" For the first time among modern Orthodox writers, Krupin raised this topic in the story "Marusina's Scarves". A woman is described there - there is such a term "church witch" - he went back from the ancient church. These are the notorious evil old women who meet every person wandering into the temple, and they meet him by no means friendly, but pounce on him, begin to condemn him, begin to poke him - what’s wrong, it’s not right ... And Krupin has just such the woman in his story - she is shown how many people, because she met them like this, did not come to God. But the fact is that there is another topic. Here is what I write about, it practically does not rise in modern Orthodox literature, this topic, and in vain. The fact that there are not angels in the church, there are people there. And when you come to the temple, you can meet a variety of people. After all, it is not for nothing that the church is called a spiritual clinic. And when we come to the clinic, well, to the clinic, first of all, we will meet the patient. I really have a story where both believers and clergymen are written out with a fair amount of irony. But it's not in vain. So you mentioned Abbot Gennady. And I will remember even more such a bright and colorful character, he is the hero of several of my stories. This is Father Anatoly Dubov, whom his colleagues called "Father Dubol". This is a terrible figure.

A. Mitrofanova

Let's talk about this character in the second part of our program.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

V. Emelyanov

We remind you that you are listening to the Bright Evening program. In the studio Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova. And the “Bright Evening” is being held with us today by a writer, a doctor, a nun Euphemia. We'll be back in a minute.

A. Mitrofanova

Once again, good evening, dear listeners! Vladimir Emelyanov, me, Alla Mitrofanova. And in the "Bright Evening" on radio "Vera" nun Evfimiya Pashchenko, a writer, a neurologist, a person who, being in the tonsure, you work in an ordinary clinic, and there you receive people. And you write very interesting prose.

V. Emelyanov

But I have a question.

A. Mitrofanova

Wait, let's talk about Dubolom. I really want to talk about Dubolom.

V. Emelyanov

About Dubolom for sure. Let's.

A. Mitrofanova

You started talking about one of the heroes of several of your stories, nicknamed Dubolo. Please, let's get back to this topic. Very interesting, what did you come up with? Or taken from life?

V. Emelyanov

This, Allochka, is specially not to read the book. And she just listened...

A. Mitrofanova

V. Emelyanov

Teaser, yes.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

In fact, this is a very colorful character, but at the same time repulsive. It has been mentioned here more than once, and I will remind you once again that I did a lot of local history in my homeland. She even wrote a book about the northern women's monasteries, that is, about the pre-revolutionary monasteries of the Arkhangelsk and Vologda diocese. So, it’s hard enough for me to see how old Arkhangelsk old things, including church ones, are being destroyed before my eyes, how memory is being destroyed. I have been on this topic for a long time. I have another story, "On Christmas Eve" - ​​it's actually about the same thing. The rector is changing in the church, and the new rector begins, under the pretext of putting things in order in the church, giving it a magnificent appearance, begins to destroy old church utensils, old books - that is, everything related to the memory of the people who served here in this church , including during the years of persecution. But Father Anatoly Dubov is a more repulsive figure, a man who destroys the past, destroys the memory of the past, just for the sake of making a career, to curry favor with his superiors, as he thinks. But, by the way, Bishop Mikhailovsky and Navolotsky, who also appears in the stories about Father Anatoly, he is against such actions of the priest. And in general, Father Anatoly, destroying another relic, connected precisely with the standing for the faith of his descendants, his ancestors, instead of gratitude from the lord, he receives punishment. Because Bishop Michael understands that one cannot destroy the memory, on the contrary. Here I have such a story, it is called "The Cross", where Father Anatoly, for career reasons, sends a cross from the old Transfiguration Cathedral to the dump. And in this story it turns out - the journalist is investigating - that this cross in the 20s, when all the churches of Mikhailovsk were closed, was the only church cross in the city. The only cross that stood on the dome of the temple, although the temple itself was closed. Here is such a symbol of invincible faith. Faith survived. And many residents of Mikhailovsk recalled, the journalist collected memories that, looking at this cross, they consoled themselves - they understood that the triumph of the forces of godlessness would not be eternal, it would pass. For the cross endured, and faith will endure.

V. Emelyanov

I wanted to ask - mother, how does the church authorities treat your literary work, does it not scold?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Favorably. The late Bishop of Arkhangelsk and Kholmogory Tikhon Stepanov gave a written blessing for the publication of a number of my books, both local lore and collections of prose. Well, and, besides, my books undergo church censorship, that is, they have a neck publishing council Moscow Patriarchy.

A. Mitrofanova

Even those books that are written in the fantasy genre?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Well, the thing is, let's say, I don't have any fantasy books, not yet. There are several texts that, yes, are really written in this genre. But the fact is that with regards to fantasy, I will say this. When we talk about fantasy, Orthodox people usually think of Clive Lewis. Others remember John Tolkien. And I, in fact, derive my fantasy experiments from the work of the third writer, who worked in the fantasy genre, and in the fairy tale genre, and in the genre of the realistic novel. I'm talking about the predecessor of Clive Lewis and John Tolkien, the man who converted Clive Lewis. More precisely, Clive Lewis believed after reading one of his books. I'm talking about English writer George MacDonald. Usually they know his book "The Princess and the Goblin", there is a cartoon based on it. But he has amazing romance Sir Gibby, the sequel to his lesser known Donald Grand. I have not seen in Orthodox literature, except for the Bible, of course, such a subtle, vivid, accurate description of a person's meeting with God. This is what appeared to the prophet Elijah - the Lord appeared to him not in a storm, not in a whirlwind, but in “the voice of the coldness thin.” Here George MacDonald has such an episode in his book when main character, mute boy, Gilbert, meets God, feels God's presence on the top of the mountain. God is revealed to the child. I think that Macdonald described his personal experience, this cannot be invented.

V. Emelyanov

Please tell me, do you publish under a pseudonym or ...

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Under the real name - the nun Evfimiya Pashchenko. Under the monastic

V. Emelyanov

That is, do not hide, so to speak.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

What for?

V. Emelyanov

You know, mother Euphemia, there's something else I wanted to ask. Look - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, Grigory Izrailevich Gorin, Arkady Arkanov. If we take poetry, then Alexander Rosenbaum. Doctor and writer, doctors and poets. That's why - or is it just my kind of inflamed imagination that allows me to say that ...

A. Mitrofanova

No, no, I'm sitting here and thinking about it.

V. Emelyanov

- ... a lot of people leave their profession, let's say, not even a profession, but a job, because a doctor ... By the way, I spoke with Alexander Rosenbaum many years ago on this topic in one of the radio programs, in St. Petersburg it was the case. And then he said that a doctor, even if he does not practice medicine, he has these skills, they do not die in him. “So I can really,” he says, “resuscitate, it’s not a problem for me.” Is that why so many creative people leave the medical profession?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

I would name another name, the name of Archibald Cronin. The fact is that just in his works, another of his novels was recently published, “The Minstrel Boy” by EKSMO. This is a story about a man who became a priest, later this priest fell, lost faith in God, then returned to God. And there is also the brightest, amazing description, similar to the same from the life of St. Mary of Egypt. When this priest, already defrocked, he tries to enter the temple, and cannot, the Lord does not let him in. He succeeds, after repentance. Why are doctors often creative?

V. Emelyanov

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Well, there are many opinions on this. For example, such that doctors see a lot, meet with different everyday situations, with different people. And then they often embody their medical experience in creativity. We know an example of such creativity, these are Mikhail Bulgakov's Notes of a Young Doctor, and a number of stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, where clearly medical cases are described. But I think this is about something else. Yes, by the way - Conan Doyle! Conan Doyle is also an iconic figure.

V. Emelyanov

Certainly!

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

To understand why doctors often become writers. Maybe so - doctors have developed the ability to notice, notice. Sharpened vision of the surrounding world. They look at it from the outside, without plunging into this world, without plunging into everyday life. That is, maybe yes, indeed it is easier to understand on the example of Conan Doyle, who invented his Sherlock Holmes not from scratch. The prototype of Sherlock Holmes was a doctor. That's just the doctor of the old school, who made a diagnosis based on his gait, habits, voice, and appearance of the patient. In those days, there was no computer tomograph or ultrasound, that is, the doctor made the diagnosis basically like this - examining the patient, and talking with him, and monitoring the patient. Here is perhaps yes, medical observation. In addition, in medicine, in the medical environment, it was believed that a doctor should be a highly educated person. This is now lost, which I will talk about, but once it was also considered one of the qualities necessary for a doctor. The doctor had to be able to maintain a conversation with the patient, he had to have a broad outlook in order to establish contact with the patient, a more trusting relationship. That is, if in front of him was a person of one profession or another, the doctor had to do so in order to achieve maximum understanding between him and the patient. That is, this is education, this is a broad outlook, this is the ability to hold on. And if we take Hippocrates, if we take his medical ethics, then, in general, yes, this is now being lost little by little. But doctors are ideal, and this was the case in ancient times, and in the 19th century - they constituted the intellectual elite.

A. Mitrofanova

Nun Evfimia Pashchenko, writer, neurologist, today in the program "Bright Evening" on radio "Vera". I sit, listen to you and remember Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago, where it is clear why the main character is a doctor. This allows him to go through the Civil War, through the vicissitudes, there are a number of vicissitudes, remaining an observer and a person who empathizes with those people who meet him on the path of life, without becoming their judge, without passing judgment on them. That is, this is a person who, at the same time, we remember from the novel, that he writes poetry, very good ones, which, of course, belong to Pasternak's pen. But at the same time, he is a person who is also gifted with words, and he does it very well. So, this combination - a writer and a doctor - is, it seems to me, in general, if I may say so, there is an ontological relationship in this. Sorry for High style. Here you nod, apparently, with me in something agree. (Laughs.)

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Of course I agree. But downtime, I now remember another doctor, even two doctors, in parallel with you. One of them is Ionych from the textbook story by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. But, you see, the fallen doctor is also described there. A doctor who has turned from a doctor into a grabber, a doctor who has become a tradesman, a doctor who has descended, fallen from that spiritual height, from the moral height at which he should have been, to the level of the layman. And I also remember another doctor (laughs), less well-known. This is the hero of Paul Gallico's story "Thomasina". Many, I think, have read this story. This is the story of a veterinarian who lost his faith in God and went from animal healer to animal killer. Genius work.

A. Mitrofanova

Doctors are different, you mean.

V. Emelyanov

Certainly.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Simply, you see, this is all again connected with what a person lives for and in the name of. For what and in the name of what he creates. What does he embody in his life and in his work.

V. Emelyanov

Once, in the corridor of one of the hospitals, where I had the honor to spend three and a half weeks last year, I heard from one of my colleagues, so to speak, as someone told him: “Oh, this doctor, this the doctor is wonderful, this is a doctor from God! To which my roommate said: “And there shouldn’t be other doctors.” And this phrase somehow really sunk into me, I was over it for some time in a fever, in delirium I tried to think. Indeed, perhaps, it may be so. A real doctor must be a doctor from God. Because I'm that old medical school, which you, mother, are talking about, I just observe it using the example of my mother. Because I already have her at a rather serious age, but she is a doctor ... Firstly, she herself personifies this old Moscow medical school, and secondly, she still studied with those who studied before the war, the Great Patriotic War, etc. .d. Now it is very rare to see doctors, really in such an ideal sense, when the doctor is interested in the patient himself. And in this regard, he can offer completely non-standard courses of treatment to his patient. Well, simply, does not treat him as a piece of aching flesh, but looks inside this person.

A. Mitrofanova

Volodya, this takes time. The time, which is now, if, for example, a young doctor does not have such experience as our today's guest. How to determine in 15 minutes, peer into the soul of a person?

V. Emelyanov

I propose to ask this question to high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Health.

A. Mitrofanova

This is such a problem, I think.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

You know, I was also lucky with such doctors. I saw a similar attitude towards patients on the example of my parents - Pashchenko Vladimir Petrovich and Galina Serafimovna, my father and mother. And grandmothers, Nadezhda Ivanovna.

V. Emelyanov

Was she a doctor too?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

She was an operating surgeon. And actually, she taught me to write without being a writer.

A. Mitrofanova

Wow! That is, you have a dynasty in every sense - and in such a medical aspect you continue the work ...

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Dynasty in every sense. I am a doctor in the third generation, if not the fourth. That is, our medical dynasty dates back to serfdom, when my grandfather's grandfather, his name was Athanasius, was a serf paramedic under the Ryazan landowners Mateevs. Freedman later.

V. Emelyanov

Oh, how interesting!

A. Mitrofanova

Great!

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

You see, except for a photograph of this man, and some grandfather's stories, nothing actually survived about him. I mean, I can't say much about it. But as for my parents - yes, they taught me, in general, thanks to them, I became a doctor. As for my grandmother, this one, Nadezhda Ivanovna Batygina, I also had other wonderful grandparents, on the maternal side, who made me want to read books. So I always remember my grandfather Serafim Nikolaevich Gerasimov very warmly, thanks to him I also began to write. And here is my grandmother Nadezhda Ivanovna Batygina, a surgeon, she worked at the Vodnikov hospital in our city, was a teacher, an operating surgeon, and was famous for her ability to nurse patients.

A. Mitrofanova

Care in what sense? Raise from the bed? ..

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Severe, postoperative ... Yes, yes. That is, in her work, caring for the sick was of great importance. And psychological work, as I would say now. That is, when even for a seriously ill person, she found words that allowed him to want to live again. Even if some functions of his body were impaired after the operation.

V. Emelyanov

You also have to be a good psychologist.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes Yes. It was amazing woman, she also wrote stories from her practice, which were published in a small book after her death.

A. Mitrofanova

When it comes to such dynasties, about doctors and about a tradition that goes somewhere very deeply rooted, whatever one may say, the Apostle Evangelist Luke comes to mind, who is also, of course, a writer, and also a doctor, and who, probably, heavenly patron of all people who go this way, try to go. And of course, it is wonderful that there are such examples in our culture. People willing to spend their time and internal forces to look at another person. It's not always easy. Especially in the 21st century.

V. Emelyanov

Now it already becomes, it seems to me, impossible. Mother, and you know, I would like to ask such a question. Look, you are getting a diploma, are you a therapist, as far as I understand, by medical specialty?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

V. Emelyanov

And it would seem, a young girl, the prospects are probably the sea. The institute has just finished, and, apparently, not bad, you can stay in the city, you can go to Moscow, you can go not to Moscow, you can go to Leningrad to live and work. You come to work as a therapist in a nursing home.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes, to a suburban nursing home, more precisely, to a nursing home, which was located between two cities - Arkhangelsk and Novodvinsk.

V. Emelyanov

A. Mitrofanova

So you still go there every day?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Every day by bus, but this is normal.

A. Mitrofanova

And why, really? Volodin, the question is, what is it - brilliant prospects could open up to you, especially since you are from a dynasty of doctors. You shake your head. - Could not?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

No, the fact is that in those days there was distribution. A person who graduated from a medical institute had to go to the village for three years and work there. Almost no one knows about this now, so this is such a strange question.

V. Emelyanov

And I completely forgot.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

There was a distribution, forced. And it was a suburban nursing home. It can be said that it was providential that I ended up there by distribution, because one of my best stories, or rather two stories - one of the best, and the second one - I wrote on the plots that were gleaned there, from there, from this practice . This is, first of all, the story "Lullaby to Christ" - about a crazy old woman who sang a carol on Christmas, back in those days when it was impossible to talk about this holiday. This, in fact, was her dying swan song. She somehow managed to escape from the closed wing of the third floor, where there were patients like her with mental disorders. Went downstairs where other nursing home patients had such an impromptu concert, and sang this carol in Ukrainian "Sleep, Jesus, sleep." The tragic carol is enough. And this story is told through the eyes of a doctor who saw it. And two days after the weekend, when this doctor came back to work at the nursing home, he found out that the old woman had died. That is, it was such a dying testimony, and at the same time, for the doctor, for the narrator - this event became the beginning of the path to God.

A. Mitrofanova

Is this your story?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

No. Not mine. By that time I had already been baptized.

A. Mitrofanova

And how did it happen that you decided to take the tonsure, and how did your parents, for example, react to this? Shouldn't you ask? No need.

V. Emelyanov

May I ask a question then? Look, here it is traced, mother ... That's what I wanted to ask. No not like this. Mother, here is another question I have for you. There is a kind of very long-long-long-long such… I don’t know how to say?

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Line? (laughs).

V. Emelyanov

The line, yes, but it is either ascending ...

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Trajectory?

V. Emelyanov

Trajectory, yes! Thank you very much. Trajectory. At first you are a therapist in a suburban nursing home, but now your professional medical interests include such a science, as far as I understand, not very developed yet here in our country, like gerontology.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Yes, indeed, it was. That is, in student years I really studied centenarians in the European north of Russia. This topic was suggested to me by my father, Vladimir Petrovich Pashchenko, who dealt with this topic, published a number of scientific papers on it, and I have them. But the thing is, I have a slightly different mindset. Perhaps I would have turned out to be a scientist, but nevertheless, my literary inclinations prevailed.

A. Mitrofanova

One interfered with the other, right? (Laughs.)

V. Emelyanov

Not enough perseverance for a scientist? Or are you ... a dreamer, let's say, if, of course, this can be said about the monastic dignity.

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko

Neither one nor the other. It's just that maybe I'm a person who doesn't look for the beaten path. I went my own way. And I have scientific works of the local lore plan. Well, in particular, this book about women's monasteries is a fictionalized monograph, where I collected data from archives, that is, there are four archives involved, including (nrzb), and it was a scientific work. And I had a number of scientific articles about monasteries, about medicine in women's monasteries, for example. Various works on social structure female monasticism in the north of Russia. That is, I was more interested in this topic, it was dear to me. Well, then I so smoothly switched from this direction to writing fiction. That is, there are quite a lot of genres in which I can write - from a scientific book to a children's fairy tale.

V. Emelyanov

Thank you!

A. Mitrofanova

Nun Evfimiya Pashchenko, a writer, a neurologist, from Arkhangelsk, was today in the Bright Evening program on Vera radio.

V. Emelyanov

We say goodbye to you. Vladimir Emelyanov and Alla Mitrofanova were in the studio. See you soon!

Mon. Evfimiya Pashchenko