Mother Matron has been praying for people all her life. They turned to her for help in difficult life situations, asked for healing for serious illnesses, asked for advice and waited for comfort. She did not refuse to anyone. Everyone who had a chance to talk with the holy old woman received hope and reassurance. More than half a century has passed since the death of my mother, but many sufferers still await her help and support. Thousands of pilgrims daily fall to the relics of the righteous
Blind bird
Blessed Matrona, in the world Matrena Dmitrievna Nikonova, was born in 1881 (according to other sources, in 1885) in the village of Selino, Tula province. She became the fourth child in a poor peasant family. Mother, exhausted by poverty, was going to send the child to the shelter immediately after birth. But miracles began even before the birth of the girl. Natalya Nikonova saw a prophetic dream in which a white bird crouched in her hand with her head bowed and her eyes closed. The woman recognized in this image her unborn daughter, and the thought of a shelter was forgotten.
Matrenushka was born blind, instead of her eyes she only had hollows tightly covered for centuries. Village children, with their characteristic cruelty, often mocked a helpless girl - they teased her, quipped nettles, put them in a hole to see how she would get out. Matrena sought solace in prayers, fell in love with being in the temple early, and at night made her way into the corner with images and spent hours playing with them. It soon became clear that, without giving the girl an eye, the Lord awarded her great spiritual strength and insight.
With her inner vision, the blind baby saw much more than ordinary people. Already by the age of seven, Matrona predicted events, and all her prophecies came true. Rumors of an unusual child quickly spread around the neighborhood, and people reached the Nikonov’s house. The girl was asked for advice in everyday turmoil, prayed for a cure. And Matrenushka really helped - with the help of prayers she lifted even bedridden patients to their feet.
By the age of seventeen, Matren was waiting for another test - suddenly her legs refused. From this age until her death she could no longer walk. The daughter of the neighboring landowner Lidia Yanovskaya helped to survive, for some time voluntarily becoming her eyes and legs. But no one saw Matrenushka in tears and gloom. She humbly said that such is God's will and continued to heal exclusively others.
The beginning of wanderings
In 1917, a revolution broke out in Russia. From the ruined and ruined villages, people reached into the cities, in search of work and food. The Matrena family ended up in Moscow, where in 1925 she also moved. By this time, her brothers had joined the Communist Party, and the presence in the house of a blessed sister, constantly receiving crowds of the afflicted and asking for help, could cause them serious trouble.
In order not to bring reprisals against brothers and aged parents, Matrena leaves the family and lives in Moscow until her death, having neither her own corner, nor even a passport. She lives where she has to, constantly moving from house to house. It is known that the authorities persecuted mother and she repeatedly had to urgently move. Thanks to this, the legless and blind woman studied almost all of Moscow. Accompanied by her voluntary assistants - "cellmates".
