the memory of the holy blessed Catherine Pyukhtitska

On May 5, 2018, the memory of the holy blessed Catherine Pyukhtitska was celebrated in Estonia for the first time in the Pyhtitsa Dormition Stavropigial Convent in Estonia, the glorification of which took place on March 20 this year. On the eve of the Assumption Cathedral, the all-night vigil with lithium was served. Divine Liturgy at the Assumption Cathedral was performed by Bishop Lazar of Narva and Prichud and Bishop of Sergius of Maardu in collaboration with clergymen of the Pühtitsa monastery and the clergy of the Estonian Orthodox Church . During the service prayed the abbess of the monastery of Abbess Filaret (Kalacheva) with the sisters of the monastery, guests of honor, numerous pilgrims and parishioners. At the end of the Liturgy, the clergy and prayers passed the procession with the image of Saint Blessed Catherine Pyukhtitskaya, the holy was celebrated. Bishop Narva of Lazar addressed the audience with a sermon. The feast ended with a meal, during which the life of the holy blessed Catherine was read. Bishop Lazar, Bishop Sergiy, rector of the Nikolsky Church in Tallinn, archpriest Oleg Vrona, cleric of the monastery of Protopriest Vyacheslav Karyagin and abbot of Filaret (Kalachev) told about the life of the old man, her role in the fate of the monastery and the significance of her feat for the residents of the monastery. The participants of the festival also received a gift from the sisters of the monastery prepared by the monastic publishing house book "Pyukhtitsa monastery and its blessed starred Catherine" and a holy icon. *** Ekaterina Malkov-Panina was born on May 15, 1889 in Finland, in the fortress of Sveaborg, in the family of the military engineer Vasily Malkov-Panin. The family had six children. From an early age the future saint was distinguished by kindness and responsiveness, loved to visit the holy monastery, located not far from their homestead. Until 1900 the family lived in Helsingfors (Helsinki), then moved to Gatchina. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Catherine studied at the Natural Faculty of the Bestuzhev Courses, after which she worked in the Entomological Society in 1912-1913. In 1914, Catherine entered the nurses' courses and at the same time began to work in free city hospitals, later worked in the rear hospital, then transferred to the flying squad of the St. George's community: the sisters of mercy of this detachment helped wounded fighters who were taken out of the battlefield. After a serious illness, Catherine got a job as a caretaker in the village of Bezrabotnoe near St. Petersburg, and in 1919 she went to Estonia with her parents. July 5, 1922 Catherine was accepted as a novice Puhtitskogo monastery. From the first days of her life in the monastery, she began to behave strangely, at times, foolish. Soon she was transferred to the Gethsemane Skete, which was thirty kilometers from the monastery. At the beginning of the Patriotic War the Gethsemane skete was liquidated, and its inhabitants returned to the monastery. Catherine in 1942 was released home to care for the sick elderly parents who lived in Tallinn. In the same year, she buried her mother and stayed with her father. In Tallinn, Catherine visited the courtyard of the Pyukhtitsky monastery and predicted (almost twenty years) its closure. In 1947, Catherine buried her father and returned to the monastery, after which she began to openly foolishly. The nuns recalled that she sometimes imposed a special post, explaining this by saying that she was going to die, and usually it was to the death of one of the sisters. If she said that she was fasting, because she was preparing to be tonsured in the mantle, it meant that someone's tonsure should take place. Catherine was widely revered in the Orthodox people as having the gift of vision and healing. Many pilgrims flocked to her for advice and prayer. In April 1966, the archbishop of Tallinn and Estonia Alexis Kelejno, in the hegumen chambers of the Pyukhtitsky monastery, was tonsured in the mantle of the novice of the monastery of Catherine with the leaving of the former name. The last years of her life, the old lady rarely left the house, she lay more. If I got up and suddenly appeared, it was a big event and it meant that something significant was going to happen in this house. According to the stories of the nuns, Ekaterina's mother was constantly in sickness, but outwardly she expressed nothing of her suffering. In one of the last letters the blessed wrote: "How easy it is to take upon yourself a feat and how difficult it is to finish it ...". May 5, 1968, for the celebration of myrrh-bearers, mother Catherine peacefully departed to the Lord. There are many convincing evidences of the holiness of the ascetic and the abundant gracious gifts manifested during her life and after death in obvious miracles, including healings (some of them are confirmed by medical documents).