Chapel of St. Xenia the Blessed is an Orthodox chapel located in St. Petersburg. It is assigned to the church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, located in the same place, at the Smolensk cemetery, in the construction of which, according to legend, the Saint herself participated. The chapel was erected in 1902 at the burial place of Xenia the Blessed in memory of her.
Ksenia Petrova was born approximately in 1731, at a certain age she was married to her lover Andrei Fedorovich, whose death separated them when Ksenia was 26 years old. At her husband’s funeral, she put on his robes, saying that he was alive, but that Ksenia had actually died, and after that she began to lead a detached from the earthly and material world lifestyle – the woman gave her property to needy people, began to walk barefoot humbly along the streets of St. Petersburg, at nights coming to the field in order to pray for her spouse who had early left the earth. In other words, Ksenia of Petersburg began to beg for the sins of her husband here on earth, because his death took him too early and he could not do it himself, she lived a life for her husband. In that way Ksenia was living for 45 years, all her remaining life, and due to her patience and the eradication of her own desires, the God awarded her in life, endowed with the gift of insight and miraculous power to help other people and heal them. The Saint could console, help open the soul to the people lost in life, to beg forgiveness for the guilty. Since Ksenia led a lifestyle detached from the material world, it was considered a good sign if she agreed to take something from the applicant – in this case, his affairs would become better, or she came into someone’s house — love and peace reigned there. That is why to this day in the chapel of Xenia the Blessed they pray for the health and healing of loved ones, for happiness in the house, for peace in the soul.
One of the most famous facts about a woman’s actions is her incognito support in the construction of the Smolensk church at the Smolensk cemetery, where her husband Andrei Fedorovich was buried earlier. At night Ksenia brought heavy bricks to the place of construction, thereby speeding up the process of building the church.
Ksenia died at the beginning of the XIX century, she was buried at the same cemetery as her spouse was, people began to come to her grave, taking away a piece of land filled with her relics, and later it had to be suspended, since the hill above the burial ground was empty. Then people laid a slab on the top, but parish also pulled a stone out of the slab – they believed in the power of Xenia of Petersburg so much. Later, it was decided to erect a Chapel on the site of the grave of Xenia the Blessed, at first it was wooden (1830s), and in the beginning of the 20th century a stone chapel was built.
Ksenia the Blessed became the main patroness of the St. Petersburg city, and even during the great blockade of Leningrad, when the chapel was a place for storing combustible materials, people came here from all over the city to ask for protection. In 1988, the grave of Xenia was consecrated, and it was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Today, as it was before, a large number of people come to the chapel every year in order to ask the relics of the Saint Ksenia for soul salvation for themselves and their loved ones. People ask Ksenia the Blessed for help in finding a way out of a difficult life situation, in healing from a serious illness, in finding a spouse, about the health of her family and much more.
Authors: Olennikova Darya Agarkova Anna
Location : St.Petersburg
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