Vologda wanderer Alexander Krainev It has long been observed that it is extremely harmful to a man’s soul and body to thoughtlessly and mindlessly take on someone else’s Christian exploits. We knew someone who, in pursuit of lofty endeavors, wouldn’t let experienced, intelligent people bring him down to earth—he rushed to “live the life of a holy ascetic” in the woods near Vologda. He left the world carrying a backpack, matches and canned food. The Vologda mosquitoes took the burden of enlightenment upon themselves and prompted the aspiring ascetic to return home—and he didn’t even finish his canned food, despite it being Lenten. Prudent, experienced people strictly forbade us to laugh: “There’ll be plenty of reasons to be ashamed of ourselves, make no mistake!” Well, that’s for sure! And that’s without mosquitoes…
One of us, after finally growing up (but obviously not in spirit), decided to follow the exploits of 
Venerable Alexis the Man of GodThe parents sought the missing Alexis everywhere, but without success. The servants sent by Euphemianus also arrived in Edessa, but they did not recognize the beggar sitting at the portico as their master.
“>St. Alexis, the Man of God, and abandoned his family “for the love of God.” Fortunately, he returned back to the fold, but, as he explains it, it was every bit as shameful. In a moment of merriment, I asked my mother-in-law what she’d do if her favorite son-in-law decided to take the same path. “Do you see Dvina?” the old lady didn’t appreciate my joke (she resides on the right bank of the river). “The Northern Dvina. That’s where you belong! Wisecracker, eh! Go do some work, you сhatterbox.” Her pastoral method is certainly foolproof.
I think all of us have had many times of irrationality. Some of us took the knocks themselves, while others saw the mistakes in others. Thus, it is truly important to exercise caution and have an adequate estimation of our anything-but-ascetic abilities. Only when we exercise discerment we will be able to do the right thing, reasonably and justly.
Taking up the cross is a labor that is truly personal and intimate. All of us have our own measure, always wondrous.
I was told this story not long ago in the From Moscow to the Northern ThebaidIt wasn’t without God’s providence that I ended up here. Thus, from Sretensky Monastery in the center of Moscow, I wound up in the Northern Thebaid, which I’m very glad about. At the same time, there are plenty of opportunities for humility.
“>Zaonikiev Vladimirskaya Icon of the Mother of God Hermitage, a poor monastery near Vologda. It was about a local man Alexander Krainev, who was a blessed saint, and a beggar.
In a chapel at the St. Mitrophan cemetery in St. Petersburg, a tombstone over his grave carried a brief inscription, “Wanderer Alexander Krainev, died December 10, 1889 at the age of seventy-one.” The chapel, just like the cemetery, was destroyed by the Bolsheviks in the late 1920s and only several years ago its foundations were discovered by archaeologists from the St. Petersburg State University. One of the ascetic labors undertaken by the wanderer Alexander (or, as he called himself, “Alexandrushko”) was helping struggling churches and monasteries—he wandered around Russia, collecting alms and giving them to the needy.
The future ascetic was born in the village of Erdenevo of Vologda uyezd1 near the Zaonikiev Vladimirskaya Icon Hermitage, one of the then famous monasteries of the Russian North located fifteen versts2 from Vologda. He had a difficult, even frightful lot.
From the age of fifteen, Alexander worked as a spademan, and when he turned twenty, he married a poor village girl Olga Sokolova. The young family lived together with his sisters, who disliked their new relative. The saying, “Four brothers-in-law are better than one sister-in-law” may sound humorous, but if you should happen to live in such a hell yourself, you could be led to despair. That’s what happened to Alexander—he’d often find work further away from home and work longer shifts, and then he took to drinking, which caused epileptic seizures. The birth of their children didn’t help either: scandals, yelling, screaming, drinking sprees, absences— in a nutshell, the whole deal. Twenty years passed, and Alexander saw with his own eyes what such agony was leading him to. Probably fear for his fate after death contributed to the fact that the poor soul made a final decision: to leave home and family, to put on ascetic chains, and wander to holy places collecting alms for the restoration of struggling churches.
From the life of the blessed wanderer, we learn about his meeting with Holy Hierarch Philaret (Drozdov). Standing in front of the Metropolitan was
“a skinny wanderer of average height, with dark skin and black hair, who wore a rather shabby homespun peasant coat. He looked like a beggar who had traveled many a hundred versts. Alexander asked the Metropolitan’s blessing to be a wanderer and wear chains. The Metropolitan warned the wanderer that what he was about to do would require from him longsuffering and meekness. Falling at the feet of the Metropolitan, the wanderer promised to try his best to remain meek and to bear his cross with patience, also asking him to pray for the servant of God Alexander.”
The chains the wanderer had wrapped around his body weighed a pood and three pounds—which is seventeen kilograms in modern measurement.
Gentleness was one of his distinctive qualities
Alexander began wandering around the world. From his native land near Vologda and then to Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Pochaev, Rostov, the Caucasus, Jerusalem, Solovki, the Holy Mountain… Heat, cold, hunger (he ate nothing but bread and water), dressed in rags—if you compare this with our modern, comfortable pilgrimage trips, for some reason the desire to condemn him, “a weakling who failed to cope with the hardships of family life and deal with his alcoholism”—slowly disappears. Add to this the inevitable suspicion, unfriendliness, ridicule, hardships, illnesses, scolding, mockery, and sometimes beatings—the “fairy tale of wanderings” will lack any romantic appeal and rosy expectations. Some pilgrims, they say, manage to quarrel even while travelling in comfortable buses and on airplanes—but you just try to keep peace of mind and kind attitude to people when they literally fling mud at you. But he managed to do it; according to the people of St. Petersburg, one of his distinctive qualities was his gentleness.
He’d tell those who asked him to pray for them, “How can I pray to God for others? It is you who must pray for Alexandrushka-the-fool!” When he was offered monasticism in his native Zaonikiev hermitage, he replied, “A fool isn’t worthy of the angelic rank.” He spoke simply and sincerely from his heart, and this corrected many people. If he chanced upon a drunkard, he’d sigh, remember something and say, “My brother, my dear one, what if I beg you on bended knees that you, for Christ’s sake, no longer drink wine?” And he’d do as he said, bowing down low. Who of us can call a drunkard a brother, sincerely, from the heart?
Helping struggling parishes was his special concern. There is evidence of funds collected by the wanderer for various repairs, new iconostases, roof repair, and liturgical utensils, especially for churches around Vologda. The vast majority of these churches, however, were destroyed in times of persecution.
One day, Alexander came to his native village. The locals thought he came for good. But it wasn’t so—he came to say goodbye to his wife. They asked forgiveness of each other for the pain they had caused. “Forgive me for grumbling against you when you went on your wanderings. Pray, my beloved, for my sinful soul!” “And you forgive me, my poor one, for your life with me wasn’t at all beautiful, you had to endure much grief in your loneliness,” this is what we read in the life of the wanderer about the last conversation between wife and husband. Can we forgive each other we stand, at least, on the threshold of eternity? Without sharp words and biting expressions, spoken in resentment, with pursed mouth and followed by sighs? Can we really do that?
Blessed wanderer Alexander Krainev died in St. Petersburg and was buried in the Church of the Savior on Sennaya Street. Eyewitnesses reported that crowds of people, literally, thousands of people who saw in him a man of prayer, a friend, and a helper, accompanied him to the St. Mitrophan cemetery.
A chapel at the grave of Alexander Krainev. Drawing published in “Russian Pilgrim” magazine, 1911. According to Elena Mikhailova, Doctor of History, head of the G. S. Lebedev archaeology, historical sociology and cultural heritage workshop at St. Petersburg State University, “the Vologda wanderer Alexander Krainev was revered in St. Petersburg almost as much as the St. Xenia of PetersburgSt. Xenia of Petersburg
“>Blessed Xenia. He was to be canonized before revolution, but the timing was wrong.”
“Later, his pious followers built a chapel over his grave. A cross was erected inside the chapel, with an undying lampada burning next to it. Just as during the wanderer’s earthly life, a cup hanging nearby was filled with donations. Here you could encounter poor old women and elegantly dressed ladies, simple peasants and noble aristocrats. In grief or in need, in sickness or in sorrow, anyone could come to the grave of the wanderer to pray and be inspired at this place of his earthly repose, with meekness, humility, patience, love for God and neighbor. The afflicted would leave this place feeling peace in their souls and relief in their hearts. His chains and the heavy staff he always carried with him are now kept in the sacristy of the cemetery church,” we can read in the old newspapers.
In 1927, the authorities decided on “the immediate closure of the St. Mitrophan cemetery.” Two years later, four cemetery churches and three chapels were closed down and demolished, one of them being the chapel over the grave of the wanderer Alexander Krainev. After the destruction of the churches in the St. Mitrophan cemetery, the books with records of numerous miracles at the prayers of the wanderer and on his grave also disappeared.
In the 1980s and 90s, warehouses belonging to “Intourist” and later a garbage dump were located on the place of the wanderer’s grave
From the 1930–50s, all the tombstones in the burial ground were destroyed. In the eighties and nineties, warehouses belonging to “Intourist” and later a garbage dump filled with trash, old foliage and soil were set up on the place of the wanderer’s grave.
Since 2006, the wanderer Alexander Krainev has been prayerfully commemorated at the place of his burial.
In 2010, with the blessing of Archpriest Vladimir Sorokin, a cross was erected at the place of Alexander Mikhailovich’s grave.
A cross at the gravesite of Alexander Krainev
On what was formerly the village of Erdenevo near Vologda, there is now a field. The Zaonikiev Vladimirskaya Icon of the Mother of God Hermitage is being restored nearby. This is the place where the blessed man is always remembered, and all who are heavy-hearted are prayed for here, following the example of the wanderer Alexander. They always keep in mind, that a cross and ascetic labors are truly personal and hidden things. Everyone has his own measure, and it’s always wondrous!
Source: Orthodox Christianity
