The story of the acquisition of the Cross began, as one would expect in such a case, with a miracle. The cross was literally revealed from heaven. In 1423, on the Sahot bog, the shepherds saw the "ineffable light" and, coming closer, saw the Cross with the crucifix itself, and next to it - the image of the Miracle Worker Nicholas with the Holy Gospel.
Many seriously consider it a shrine of Constantinople, miraculously transferred to Russia 30 years before the fall of the Christian kingdom of Byzantium. At least even historians agree that the style of depiction and inscriptions indicate that the Cross could not have been created in Russia.
The shrine is a human-sized carved image of the Savior on the Cross. Above there are Greek inscriptions - "stavru of icons", which means "the image of the Cross". The Cross itself is wooden, carved from linden. “The Cross-Crucifixion is distinguished by its purity of decoration, naturalness of the image and the height of thought, which is not typical for sculptures,” wrote the Yaroslavl provincial Gazette in 1848 about the shrine. It is noteworthy that, according to doctors, this very image of Jesus is the most anatomically correct.
Not far from this place was built the Church of St. Nicholas, whose image appeared along with the Cross itself. From that moment on, numerous stories of help and healings began in this place. A prophetic legend about the appearance of the Cross is being fulfilled: "Pass the glory of the miracles of the Life-giving Cross and the miraculous miracles of the miracle worker Nikola to many countries."
The priests began to record in detail the stories related to the healings from the Cross of the Lord. The first such book burned down in a fire, but the record continued in other books that appeared later, and is still underway. Thanks to the centuries-old chronicle, we learn about cases of healing from demonic possession near the shrine, healing from epileptic seizures, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, heart, joints, organs of vision, skin, cases of getting rid of depression, asthma, infertility and even healing from cancer are also described. diseases and cerebral palsy.
The beginning of the thirties of our century brought serious trials to this place. The God-fighters tried to destroy the Cross in various ways, but all their attempts were doomed to failure. They tried to burn the cross - it did not burn, they tried to saw it, but the saw teeth ran into something hard and broke, the ax could not cut it. In connection with the attempts to destroy the Cross, they recall several stories associated with those who zealously tried to do this.
So, a resident of a nearby village, who did manage to chop off the Savior's little finger, paid for it a few days later - he injured his foot (and also the little finger) and soon died of gangrene.
A teacher at a nearby school decided to donate the Cross to the museum as an outstanding work of art. He reached an agreement with the authorities, arranged the transportation and was very pleased with the fruits of his labors. On the way back, he decided to brag to a woman who venerated the Cross, but she did not support him, but, on the contrary, cursed him. The man was paralyzed that evening, and a year later he died.
Today the Church of St. John Chrysostom, the present home of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, is a courtyard of the Pereslavsky Nikolsky Monastery. The sisters receive pilgrims with hospitality, maintain order and cleanliness in the temple, and equip the household. The sisters claim that they can accept a pilgrim even at night, if he specially comes to worship the shrine. It turns out that there are such cases - a person can come from Moscow, this is more than 4 hours of driving, not counting traffic jams, in order to venerate the Cross for some ten to fifteen minutes and go to work.
The greatest shrines have always evoked different attitudes towards themselves - from worship and veneration to strong neglect and the desire to destroy them. In any case, everyone who comes into contact with them feels something mysterious, powerful, beyond our current understanding.
