Among the saints of the Lord there are a small number that follow the difficult path of divine
folly.
Known as salos in Greek and iurodivyi in Russian, the fool-for-Christ is inspired by St. Paul’s
First Letter to the Corinthians where he says that the apostles are a spectacle to the world
and, despite their hunger, thirst, and persecution and even while living as the offscouring of
all things, they endure as fools-for-Christ’s sake.
And endure they must, for by their very presence the fool-for-Christ invites ridicule and derision.
For the holy fool is a mysterious figure, one who instead of falling for the trappings
of social status, power, and wealth, instead feigns madness and acts in strange ways in
order to mock the world.
This folly, which some may take for mental illness or demonic possession, serves a double
purpose as it wards off vainglory and hides the spiritual gifts that the fool has gained
through hidden asceticism.
One of the most beloved of these figures is venerable Xenia of St. Petersburg, a fool-for-Christ
now venerated throughout the Orthodox world.
She is the patron saint for those seeking a spouse, employment, or a new home despite
not having these for most of her life.
She also intercedes for the sick, the homeless, and on behalf of missing children.
Xenia married Colonel Andrei Fyodorovich Petrov but was widowed at age 26 when he died one
night at a drinking party.
She deeply mourned his loss and found that the things of this world no longer had any
meaning.
Against the wishes of her family, Xenia gave up her home and all of her possessions and
disappeared from St. Petersburg to seek spiritual instruction from holy ascetics and elders,
including St. Theodore of Sanaxar, whose life also changed when he witnessed a young officer
die at a drinking party.
After eight years, Xenia had gained enough spiritual strength to return to St. Petersburg
to care for the poor in the guise of a fool-for-Christ.
She insisted that everyone call her by her husband’s name and even wore his red and
green military uniform while wandering throughout the poorest sections of the city.
When the uniform eventually wore out she exchanged it for red and green rags.
People mocked and ridiculed Xenia as a simple minded beggar.
For the presence of a fool who wants nothing nor has anything to lose is a shock to those
who conform to the desires and wisdom of this world.
Yet she endured with patience and humility, only once raising her cane in the air at a
group of street urchins who threw rocks and mud at her.
Xenia followed Christ’s example by enduring her hardships with meekness and silence.
In time she gained the sympathy of the citizens of St. Petersburg.
Some even began offering her warm clothing during the winter which she in turn gave to
the poor.
She did the same with the copper coins given to her, the coins known as “the king on
horseback” due to the depiction of the king on the coin.
Xenia distributed whatever she received to the poor in the vicinity of the church of
St. Matthias.
To one woman she said, “Take this king on a horseback.
It will be extinguished.”
The woman returned home, wondering about these words from this beggar until she saw that
her house was on fire.
But soon after she arrived the fire was extinguished.
Xenia loved children and whenever she would pray over the crib of a sick infant the child’s
health would improve.
When local merchants gave her food or clothing, their business for the day would drastically
increase.
Some citizens, still not understanding Xenia’s way of life, became concerned that she was
homeless and worried about where she stayed at night.
So, a local police man followed her and found that she spent her nights praying and making
prostrations in an open field.
It was here, she would later say, that she felt God more distinctly.
While Xenia made no show of her spiritual gifts, people began to notice and would invite
her to their home.
Such as the Golubev family.
One time when Xenia visited, she suddenly said to their seventeen year old daughter,
“Here you are making coffee while your husband is burying his wife at Okhta.
Run there quickly!”
Confused, the girl left for the Okhta Cemetery and through a series of events met her future
husband.
On the eve of the Feast of the Nativity, Xenia was heard saying, "Bake blini!
Tomorrow all Russia will bake blini!”
The next day, the Empress died and Russians made blini, the traditional pancake made upon
someone’s death.
In 1794, toward the end of Xenia’s life, a new church was being built in the Smolensk
Cemetery.
Workers would arrive in the morning only to find a large number of the bricks already
carted up to the top of the building.
They later discovered that it was Xenia who late at night carried the bricks up the scaffolding
as part of her asceticism.
Throughout her time in St. Petersburg, Xenia lived in poverty as a homeless wanderer and
yet displayed remarkable gifts of clairvoyance and prophecy.
She did all for the love of Christ and became a fool in order to become wise.
And when she departed to the Lord at the age of 71, her grave in the Smolensk Cemetery
quickly became a place of pilgrimage.
People would take soil from her grave site only to report miracles happening afterward.
When the authorities placed a stone slab over her grave, this too disappeared as pilgrims
carried it away bit by bit.
Later, when the Communist government built a fence around the chapel that now covered
her gravesite and also prohibited flowers, the faithful honored her by making paper flowers
instead.
Xenia, as one anonymous writer said, “bore that faith with which all things are possible.
While still living in her body, her soul always soared above this world, dwelling in a living,
direct communion with God.”
Saint Xenia, please pray for us!