XENIA THE
HOMELESS WANDERER
We know almost nothing about the early years of Blessed Xenia's life.
She was happily married to a colonel who was a court singer in St.
Petersburg, Russia's capital city at that time, and we can assume that
her' own family was among the well-to-do. She was only 26 years old
when her husband suddenly died at a drinking party. Xenia loved her
husband very much and his unexpected death came as a great shock, It
completely changed her way of looking at life. Knowing that her husband
had not prepared himself for death and that he had died without the
prayers of the Church, she began to be very concerned about the eternal
state of his soul. It was as though she were given new eyes; she
thought no more about parties, about having fun with friends; she gave
away her possessions to the poor. In fact, she broke all ties with the
world--to such an extent that even her relatives thought she must be
crazy. Xenia dressed in her husband's clothes and insisted on being
called by her husband's name, Andrew, as if to say that she had died,
not he. And indeed, she died to the world in order to be closer to God.
At night she would go into a field outside the city
and stand for hours in prayer, even in the snow. Or she would secretly
help in the building of the Smolensk cemetery church carrying to the
top bricks which would be waiting for the workmen in the morning.
Often. as she walked the streets in the city's poorer neighborhoods,
people made fun of her, children would throw dirt at her and laugh. The
blessed one only prayed for their souls, bearing patiently their taunts
for the sake of Christ.
Gradually, however, people began to see that behind
her seemingly odd behavior was someone who was very special in the eyes
of God. They noticed that when she would hold a crying baby in her
arms, the baby would at once quiet down and remain calm and content for
the rest of the day. Those stores which she entered would have good
business that day. People began to realize that her often strange words
held a deeper meaning, sometimes warning them of approaching disasters,
or of what was to happen in their life. Once, for example, she went to
visit her friends the Golubevs as they were preparing to sit down for a
cup of coffee. "Oh my beauty," she said to the daughter, "here you are
making coffee, while your husband is burying his wife at Ochta. Run
quickly!" The young girl and her mother were most puzzled by these
words, but knowing Xenia' s gift of being able to see the future, they
obeyed at once. There they came upon the funeral procession of the wife
of a young doctor who was so overcome by grief that he fainted.
The Golubevs brought him back to his senses, became
acquainted, and a year later the daughter became his wife, just as the
blessed one had foretold.
Another time some merchants were selling some
particularly delicious honey out of a barrel. People had already begun
to buy it at a high price when suddenly Blessed Xenia appeared. "Don't
take it, don't take it," she cried. "This honey can't be eaten; it
stinks of a corpse." She leaned with all her strength against the
barrel which overturned on the sidewalk, spilling the honey to the
merchants' great dismay. To everyone's horror, there at the bottom of
the barrel was a huge dead rat. Even those who had already bought some
of the honey had to throw it out.
St. Xenia lived in this way for for years after the
death of her husband. Exactly when she died is not known, but it was
probably in the last years of the 18th century. She was buried in the
Smolensk cemetery, not far from the church which she had helped to
build. Later a chapel was built over her grave, and to this very day
many people come there to pray to St. Xenia who, even after death
continues to work many miracles, helping people out of all kinds of
misfortunes. Through her prayers, people have been healed of serious
illnesses; she is especially quick in helping to find jobs or places to
live. Just this year a woman in England was looking for a place to live
near the church where she had recently been received into the Orthodox
Faith, so as to be able to attend the daily services. She and her
priest prayed to St. Xenia and within a few days she had an apartment
in the house next door to the Parish House! Wondrous is God in His
saints.
May we learn from the example of Blessed Xenia how
important it is for us not to be attached to the things of the world,
but to keep our minds and hearts turned towards heaven, our true home,
that we too, like St. Xenia, may, after our earthly wandering, “come to
dwell in the Father's house.”