The Ascent

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Людмила Князева. The Ascent

In Lieu of Preface

The Beginning

The Parents

Memory Eternal

The Exodus

Between Life and Death

The God-Given Gift

The Baptism

The Veneration

Second Sight

The Demise

From the Author

Отрывок из книги

The life of hierodeacon Antony has been shaped by a cruel fate, indeed. It all began one day when he, a callow youth, was forced to leave his father’s home and overnight became a wanderer and eventually a martyr. Having first deprived him of eyesight, of hearth and home, and finally of family happiness, the cruel fate, however, was unable to break his spirit and his resolve to live an honest life following the dictates of Christian conscience.

But before beginning my story about this remarkable Orthodox monk I would like to ask you first who of you could define the meaning of your life? Do any of you know for certain and exactly why you came into this world?

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However, he was destined to enjoy his happy and unclouded childhood only for four short years. The Bolshevik Revolution broke out in 1917 and rudely changed all that.

Early in 1918 his father, to the surprise of all suddenly sold all he owned, put his family on board a steamer and sailed up the Volga to the city of Cheboksary where the family disembarked. For another week they rode on horseback deep into the wilds of Chuvashia eventually halting at the village of Kakerli-Shigali, Chuvash for “red stone”, about a dozen miles from the district center of Shemursha. In the village surrounded by thick forest there was a beautiful wooden triple-throned church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Not far from it the Semyonovs built a large wooden six-room, two-storeyed house.

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