Not so for a believer. At every church service, the Orthodox ask God to grant them a shameless, peaceful, sinless end. The one that will be the beginning of radiant eternal life. Sinless means with forgiveness of sins, that is, after confession. Peaceful means in peace with people and God, after communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. It is impossible, unthinkable, not to invite a priest to the bedside of the dying man for a dignified farewell to the last journey, a journey of eternity.

But the Lord did not give such a death to Aksinya Grigorievna's husband. Her grief was immeasurable.

– My dear, why did the Lord not allow you to repent before death, to partake of Holy Communion? Have you angered Him so much? It means that your soul will burn forever in the flames of hell?..

It would seem, well, what can you do about it? As he died, so he died.

This is God's will for him, humble yourself, Xenia. I didn't put up with it.

"I'll pray for you." When we were married, we became one being. So, for now, I have remained on earth, and you are alive. The flesh of my flesh, the soul of my soul. From now on, the servant of God Andrew will begin to live in such a way that the Lord will forgive all his sins, giving him eternal life in his kingdom.

And Ksenia became Andrey. She responded only to the name "Andrei Fedorovich", and not to Ksenia Grigorievna. I put on his uniform. Do you think this is crazy? So it seemed to her family and friends. But it was not madness, madness, nonsense. Ksenia showed what real love is, to the end. What is a sequence?

"Let the two be one flesh." And she became the flesh of her husband, whether alive or dead – this did not change the matter.

"Love... He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ceases..." (First Epistle to the Corinthians of St. Paul, 13:4)

That's the kind of love.

Blessed Xenia in her youth.

I want to tell you about the miraculous help of Blessed Xenia. In December 2001, my husband was arrested and charged with ordering the murder of a person, although he had nothing to do with it. He was testified against under torture by a person who was allegedly the perpetrator of this murder. Then he retracted his testimony, but it no longer mattered.3