May: Day 20:
The Finding of the Honorable Relics of our Holy Father Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia, the Wonderworker
(Lessons From His Life:
a. One Must Be Attentive To The Voice of Conscience, and
b. One Must Walk Worthy of One’s Calling)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. The life of Saint Alexis, celebrated today, was rich in various exploits. But history depicts it to us only in general features, with some details dwelling only on particularly remarkable cases, of which one relates to the youth of Saint Alexis, others to mature age, and one, finally, to the hours before his death.
The twelve-year-old youth Eleutherius, the future Saint Alexis, the son of rich and noble parents, who had learned to read and write and was always pious, by the special providence of God, once set a net to catch birds. There was no catch, and the youth Eleutherius, from the deep silence, long waiting and boredom, fell asleep. Suddenly in a dream he heard a voice: “Alexis! Why do you labor in vain? Behold! from now on you will catch men.” In surprise and horror, the youth Eleutherius wakes up and sees no one around him. His first thought was what this new name, Alexis, meant, what this whole vision meant. Good seed fell on good soil: hearing the heavenly voice calling to feats of piety, Eleutherius followed his calling with all his soul. From that hour he began to be “in much sorrow and contemplation.” The parents' lamentable remarks were in vain: "Why do you indulge in such sadness, you are always silent, always have books in your hands, but for us you have not a word? Who taught you to live a monastic life? Why did you dry yourself out so much with fasting and thirst? Enough, do not crush yourself, otherwise you will fall into illness and plunge us into sorrow and grief." Eleutherius, as much as he could, consoled them, asked them not to worry, but, despite this, continued to adhere to his abstinence: he did not go to spectacles, did not play with the youths, ran away from all blasphemies and mockery, but in silence he was diligent in reading the Divine Scriptures and always walked in his sorrow. And having reached the age of nineteen and having loved God with all his soul, he left his father and mother and brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends, and having hated every worldly attachment, he went to a monastery, saying to himself, from a heart full of divine love: “I chose rather to dwell in the house of God than to live in the villages of sinners.”