The grave of Agafya Ilyinichna Suvorova at the Resurrection cemetery in Saratov has long been a place of pilgrimage and worship. People believe what is written on the plaque. And it is written that the ashes of Abbess Agafia, the granddaughter of the great commander Alexander Suvorov, lie in the grave. But the biographers of the famous generalissimo doubt this statement.
When the grave of Suvorov's granddaughter appeared at the Resurrection cemetery in Saratov, no one really knows. But a marble tablet installed on a large Orthodox cross says that “Abbess Agafia, granddaughter of the Great Russian commander A. V. Suvorov. R. 1810 Dm. 05.08.1956, 146 years. Abbess, granddaughter of Suvorov, and at the same time lived for 146 years? Quite a bit for a sensation. And all this looks quite reliable, if you believe in miracles. But there is little reliable information about the biography of Mother Superior Agafya (we will call her that for now). So, meager scraps. Old-timers say that she herself did not like to talk about herself and stopped all talk about her origin. She was allegedly afraid that they would be sent back to the camps.
The Countess underground
The extremely scarce and fragmentary information is explained by the fact that Abbess Agafya was Suvorov's granddaughter, and even bore the title of count. And in post-revolutionary times, it was unsafe to have such a relationship and title.
And yet, some information from her biography was known. Say, she served time in Stalin's camps. But for faith, not for politics. Allegedly, atheist Bolsheviks too often saw her in church. And they warned her not to be too “active”. And Agafya still went every day, offered prayers to God. She was warned once again, one day she was almost beaten, and then someone wrote a denunciation. Like, this Agafya is a spy, she works for the White Guards. So she thundered into the dungeons of the Cheka, and then to the camps - for 24 years!
It happened in 1918, and even then Agafya was … 108 years old!
And when she was released, she turned 132! The authorities assigned her a new place of residence: the city of Engels, near Saratov.
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She did not have her own home; she lived with Orthodox parishioners, who would give shelter. They fed her, although even bread was then rationed. Dressed and put on shoes - the world is not without good people. After all, she devoted her life to faith and prayer, and such people in Russia have always been respected. Although the atheists considered her crazy, or even just a fraud, living at someone else's expense. Believers considered the old woman blessed. On weekdays, Agafya came to Saratov to the Trinity Church to pray. But every Saturday I returned to Engels - at the place of registration, for the obligatory registration with the police.
Old-timers also said that before the revolution, Agafya was allegedly a nun and walked to Jerusalem to worship the holy places. In a word, the saint was a woman. So when Agafya died, she was buried in the best part of the cemetery with great honor.
Open worship of the grave of Mother Superior Agafya began after an Orthodox cross and a marble plaque with an inscription were installed on the grave. And it seems to have happened already in the early 2000s. Believers believe that after visiting her grave, grace descends on them: she brings prayers to the Lord, and helps in troubles, and heals all ailments.
Abbess without a monastery
In Orthodoxy, the abbess is a clergyman. It means the abbess of a monastery or a simple church parish, which corresponds to the male priesthood of the abbot. But there is no historical evidence that Agafya received this rank. As well as the fact that she was canonized. (True, the diocesan newspaper "Pravoslavnaya Vera" once contained notes about Agafya - the memories of believers, those who knew her during her lifetime.) So the question arises: whose ashes actually rest in this grave?
Saratov old-timers say that Agafya did not wear the special vestments allegedly due to her rank. She always dressed in mundane clothes, poor, but clean and neat. She changed her old coat more than once to make it look newer. (However, at that time many people changed their outerwear, and more than once.) It seems that the Saratov parishioners themselves elevated Agafya to the rank of abbess.
And the old-timers also said that during the service in the church, when it came time to kiss the cross, the rector of the Holy Trinity Cathedral always approached Agafya first of all to kiss the cross. Maybe after the service the people were drawn to her - after all, Father himself singled her out again! Praying old women whispered behind their backs that like holy grace emanated from Agafia when you were standing next to me.
After the grave of Suvorov's granddaughter appeared from nowhere at the Resurrection cemetery in Saratov, and the people began to pray to her for blessings and healings, local ethnographers became interested in its origin. Local historian and writer Maria Saliy also participated in this investigation. And I got to the bottom of something.
According to her version, the solution to the Saratov phenomenon is partly hidden in the publication of January 15, 1937 in the newspaper "Kommunist". This article told about a long-liver, which was revealed by the census of the population of the USSR: “During the census, the oldest person in Saratov turned out to be Agafya Ilyinichna Suvorova, who lives in the second worker's passage. She is 132 years old.
Our employee visited the old lady and talked to her. She tells about herself the following: “I was born in 1804. I remember well the war between Russia and Napoleon. Then I lived with my parents in Kostroma. I especially remember serfdom. I was a serf landowner Kruglikov in the village of Fedino, Yaroslavl province. Life was difficult. She worked day and night for the gentlemen. She spun out 23 arshins of talc per day. I am many years old. Yes, everyone in our family lived for a long time. My father Ilya Pavlovich lived to be 160 years old, and my uncle Vasily Pavlovich lived to be 140 years old. I am proud that I nursed Kravchenko, who became a famous artist. " (Obviously, we are talking about a native of Pokrovskaya Sloboda (now Engels) Alexei Ilyich Kravchenko (1899-1940) - a painter, graphic artist and book illustrator who was born into a peasant family and was left without a father at the age of three. In adolescence, Kravchenko studied drawing with an icon painter in a local church, where Abbess Agafya probably served. - Approx. Auth.) The old woman looks cheerful, but complains of loneliness. For some reason, she does not receive a pension. We need to ensure her old age."
Invented sensation?
From here, most likely, the legend of Abbess Agafya, the granddaughter of the commander Suvorov, originated. Soon this information appeared in the newspaper "Young Stalinets", where a photo of Agafya herself was published. These publications just prove that Agafya Ilyinichna Suvorova could not be the granddaughter of Generalissimo Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. After all, her father's name was Ilya, and he came from serfs.
If we turn to the biography of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov, the following becomes clear.
The commander had two children. One of them is their daughter Natalya, born in 1775, who gave birth to seven children in marriage. But among them there was no one named Ilya. The commander's second child, a son, was named Arkady. He was born in 1784, the father of four children, and again Ilya was not among them. And in this case, we would be talking about a great-granddaughter, not a granddaughter. However, the Suvorov family tree has been studied by historians and biographers from "a" to "z".
It remains to find out the following: could Agafya Ilyinichna Suvorova live to be 146 years old? At the same time, at the age of 108, get into camps, spend 24 years there and survive!
Most likely, this is the so-called folk myth. After all, even in the photo from the newspaper "Young Stalinist" Suvorov in his supposedly 132 years old looks like this for 50 years!
This can be explained very simply. After the Civil War, many were left without identity documents. And they were given not on the basis of metrics, but more often they were written down from words. So Agafya Ilyinichna could have forgotten her exact year of birth. Indeed, in an interview from 1937, she says that she was born in 1804. And on the memorial plaque, as we remember, 1810 is indicated!
Another thing is interesting here: the mechanism of the origin of the myth. It's a bizarre mix of truth and fiction. The name of a genius commander, faith in God, an echo of Stalin's repressions and a long, long life. This is how fairy tales are born that become legends.
Anna MIKHAILOVA