The great Greek enlightener of the Russians, Saint Maximos the Greek (1470–1556) [21 January], spent the final five years of his life at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity, founded by Saint Sergius of Radonezh (1314–1392) [25 September].
There Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1530–1584) visited him, as he was traveling with Tsarina Anastasia and the young Tsarevich Dmitri on a pilgrimage to Saint Cyril in Belozersk.
Saint Maximos tried — ultimately without success, despite great persistence and at the risk of his life — to persuade the religiously obsessive ruler, instead of making pointless pilgrimages, to help poor women and unprotected orphans, victims of the war for the liberation of Kazan from the Turks.
He received him in his cell with the following conciliatory words, for the sake of discernment:
“I thank Almighty God, Tsar Ivan, who deemed me worthy to see you with my own eyes before the time comes for them to close. May divine protection accompany you, great king of Orthodoxy! And if it pleases you, receive also my humble blessing.”
There Tsar Ivan the Terrible (1530–1584) visited him, as he was traveling with Tsarina Anastasia and the young Tsarevich Dmitri on a pilgrimage to Saint Cyril in Belozersk.
Saint Maximos tried — ultimately without success, despite great persistence and at the risk of his life — to persuade the religiously obsessive ruler, instead of making pointless pilgrimages, to help poor women and unprotected orphans, victims of the war for the liberation of Kazan from the Turks.
He received him in his cell with the following conciliatory words, for the sake of discernment:
“I thank Almighty God, Tsar Ivan, who deemed me worthy to see you with my own eyes before the time comes for them to close. May divine protection accompany you, great king of Orthodoxy! And if it pleases you, receive also my humble blessing.”
