(10/23 FEBRUARY)
Very often our merciful and loving Saviour allows misfortunes to befall his people for the sake of bringing them unto repentance and perfection. Though He chastises us with wounds, He quickly grants us balm for healing them. The life of St Prokhor is a good illustration of this truth. During the reign of Svyatopolk Izyaslavovich, renowned for his cruelty and injustice, the people of Kiev had to endure many hardships and sufferings. The sufferings were greatly intensified by the repeated raids upon the region of Kiev by the Polovtsians and other neighbouring tribes. These constant wars with neighbouring states, in addition to internecine warfare, pillages and internal disorders, caused impoverishment and frequent famines in Rus’.
In the midst of these harsh and sorrowful times, Prokhor came from Smolensk to the Kiev Cave Monastery requesting Abbot John to tonsure him into the monastic angelic life. The abbot accepted him and the monk Prokhor began to struggle with great diligence. The unusual aspect of his asceticism was his habit of disdaining ordinary bread and making his own from the orach grass. During the summer, he prepared enough orach flour to furnish himself with bread for the whole winter. He did that each year of his monastic life. Sometimes, he would eat a prosphora in the church; at home, he ate nothing but his orach bread and he never drank anything but water.
God, seeing the great love and patience of St Prokhor, transformed the bitterness of the orach into sweetness, and the bread cooked by the ascetic was tasty. The holy struggler rejoiced and toiled for God with joy and thanksgiving. The raids of the enemies bore no terror to this ascetic, for he lived like a bird owning nothing, but fulfilled the words of the Saviour, ‘Consider the sparrows: for they sow not, neither do they reap; they have neither storehouses nor barns; but God feedeth them.’ He did not concern himself like the rich man who said, ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” He even reproached himself for the orach which he stored up for winter saying, ‘Prokhor, this night your soul will be taken from you; who will you leave all your supplies for?’
Those days a terrible famine settled over Rus’ and starvation threatened many people. The Lord, desiring to glorify His ascetic and to save people from starvation, increased the growth of the orach plant as never before. With great diligence and toil, the blessed Prokhor gathered the weed in large amounts, made flour and baked bread. He distributed it among the hungry. Others, imitating the saint, cooked bread from the same grass but their bread was too bitter to eat. All who were in need turned to St Prokhor for bread and he refused no one. The bread baked from the bitter weed tasted sweet, better than that made of wheat. One of the brothers took bread from the saint secretly, but each time he took it, it turned out bitter and inedible. The monk was ashamed to reveal his sin to Prokhor, but he confessed it to Abbot John instead. The abbot could not believe the story. He ordered another monk to take some of the saint’s bread secretly and bring it to him. The bread indeed turned out to be inedible because of its extreme bitterness. Holding the bitter loaf of bread in his hands, the abbot sent someone to ask St Prokhor for some bread with his blessing and with this he told the messenger, ‘Grab another loaf secretly when leaving the saint.’ When the monk brought two loaves of the orach bread, the first one, given and blessed by Prokhor, was light and sweet, but the second one, stolen, was as dark and bitter as wormwood. After that, the glory of the miracle spread around and people glorified God Who granted His mercy and aid to the hungry through His saint.
At the time of internecine struggles between Svyatopolk and the other princes, merchants could not reach the principality of Kiev because of disorders, lawlessness and lootings. Therefore, there was lack of salt in the region. Sorrow fell once more upon the people, but the blessed Prokhor seeing this scarcity collected much ash from all the cells, brought it to his own cell and began to pray fervently. Then, he blessed the ash and it turned into pure salt. He handed out the salt to anyone who needed it. The more salt he gave out, the more it increased, so there was always enough salt for monks and laity. The saint never accepted any payment for his salt.
The salt merchants intending to profiteer from the shortage by selling salt at extremely high prices, became enraged at the saint. Assembling, they came to complain to Prince Svyatopolk, ‘Prokhor, a monk of the Cave Monastery, has deprived us of large profits. He constantly distributes salt while we, your taxpayers, cannot sell our salt and we suffer losses because of him.’ Having listened to all their complaints the prince decided to reach two goals at once — to end the merchants’ complaints and to enrich himself. Accepting advice from his councillors he established a very high price for salt and ordered Prokhor’s salt to be impounded and sold at the prince’s court. He told the merchants,
‘I will rob the monk for your sake.’ The prince’s men took all the salt away from St Prokhor. As soon as they brought it to the court, everyone saw that it was only ashes. The prince ordered his servants to try it and they proved the taste of ashes. All were greatly amazed and perplexed at this transformation. In order to be more firmly convinced, the prince ordered that the ashes be kept three more days and tested later. Finally, he was fully convinced and ordered that the ashes be dumped outside the court. Meanwhile, people went to the saint for salt as before but when they learned that it had been stolen they went away empty—handed condemning the causer. Prokhor comforted people and said, ‘Go near the prince’s court and collect salt under the fence.’
His words came true. The ashes thrown out through the back gate of the palace became salt again and people gathered it for themselves. Having heared of this, the prince became horrified;he asked for more details about Prokhor. When he learned of Prokhor’s ascetic life and of his many miracles including the orach bread, Svyatopolk became ashamed of his deed and went to the Cave Monastery to reconcile himself with Abbot John. The latter had often rebuked the prince for his greediness and outrages against people; thus, the prince had harboured much hatred towards the abbot before. After the miracles with salt Svyatopolk repented and prayerfully begged for forgiveness of the Most Holy Theotokos and of Sts Anthony and Theodosius. He showed deep reverence and respect for the blessed Prokhor as a true God-pleaser, and promised to do no more violence to anyone. He said to Prokhor,
‘If, by the will of God, I leave this world before you, put me in the grave with your own hands in order to show that you bear no grudge against me. If, however, you depart this life before I do I shall carry you into the cave with my own hands, so that the Lord will grant me pardon for my grave sin against you.’
After that, St Prokhor lived for many more years in struggle and prayer and then fell ill. At the time, Prince Svyatopolk was waging a campaign of defence against the Polovtsians. The blessed elder sent a word to him, ‘The hour of my departure from this life is near; if you want to fulfil your promise and receive forgiveness of your sins from God, come and lay me in the grave with your own hands. I await your arrival. If, however, you tarry and I die without you, it will then not be my fault and the campaign will not be a success.’
Having received the message, Svyatopolk immediately left his army and hastened to Kiev. In his deathbed conversation with the prince, the blessed elder instructed him much about charity, eternal life and the future judgement. At the end, the saint forgave the prince, gave him blessing and bade him farewell. Having raised his hands up, St Prokhor committed his spirit into God’s hands.
The prince carried the body of St Prokhor into the cave in his own arms and placed him in the grave. Then, he returned to his army, gained a complete victory over the Polovtsians and annexed their territory to Rus’. From that time forth, whenever Prince Svyatopolk set off on a campaign or hunt, he came to the Cave Monastery for blessing and with special diligence prayed before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and at the graves of Sts Anthony, Theodosius, and Prokhor. Moreover, from that time on, the reign of Svyatopolk proceeded more honourably and the prince himself confessed the miracles and signs of the great God-pleaser.
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