My husband was kept in solitary confinement for all these two and a half months, there were no investigative actions, as if no one was even interested in the truth or his testimony. He was taken to the Black Lake, but, it is true, he was not beaten or tortured there, but starved. From there he returned very thin and emaciated and went to bed, but again he was not provided with medical care, his entire right side of the body failed, but they did not seem to want to notice this, he simply could not get out of bed, it got to the point that just the guards from the house brought him homemade food to eat, because it hurt to look at him, I was given meetings with him only once a month, but when I saw him, I was in such a shock, I was just afraid that he would die without even waiting for the trial. He is a former Afghan, and he returned from the war with a diseased liver after hepatitis, he immediately needed not only treatment, but also a diet, but the defendants are not entitled to anything, although I did not understand why. The police were just happy, because there was such a prospect of solving a contract killing: the executor and the customer were taken, although the intermediary was unknown. In general, everything was so sewn with white threads, but no one cared, Igor was promised 20-25 years.

I was in such despair, I understood that none of the people would help me, neither Igor and I had such money, nor connections, Igor's friends also somehow reconciled. I immediately began to pray, to ask for God's help, and immediately I wrote a letter for help to Blessed Xenia. I hoped so much that injustice should not win, but we have so many cases of unfair trials. The fear was very strong, but there was also great hope. I was told to tune in to the worst, and I was afraid to even think about it, I love my Igor so much, and such a separation would simply crush me. I could not refuse him, especially knowing that he was innocent.

Things got to the point that they began to familiarize him with the case in order to then transfer him to court. And on Wednesday, March 13, I received a letter from you4 with rose petals,5 I immediately made a consecrated oil, and before night prayers I anointed my forehead. On Friday, March 15, as usual at 12 at night, I began to read prayers, and suddenly the doorbell rang, I was very worried, because it was already late, but Igor came. He was released because the real killer was found, and there was no contract killing, but just on domestic grounds, someone did not share something. Isn't it a miracle? No one expected such a turn, no one.

When Igor was allowed to go home, the guards told him directly that God was on his side, because everything was going to condemn him to 25 years. The investigator, on behalf of the entire Ministry of Internal Affairs, apologized to Igor personally, shook his hand. When Igor returned, I told him about the letter, about the prayers. And he added that he himself prayed every day, asking for God's help. Since then, I have tried to pray with great fervor to St. Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg. At the end of the fast, with God's help, Igor and I will get married, this desire has been there for a long time, and now it has been confirmed and has become a firm intention.

Elena, Nizhnekamsk, 2001

It is not our business to speculate and guess why the Lord acted this or that, why and for what purpose He sent this or that test. Our business is to live honestly in the circumstances offered. Because His intentions for each person are the eternal life of the soul in the Kingdom of Heaven. We know that God wants good for everyone, He is Love.

And if so, then the death without repentance and communion of the court chorister Andrei Petrov is also a blessing. Indeed, how many departed husbands do widows pray for as much as Xenia prayed for her Andrei Fedorovich? And by praying in this way, she saved not only him, but also many, many people around him, and we, their descendants, showed the world unprecedented love and rare holiness.

My dear contemporaries, my sisters, who among us is ready, like Xenia, to go for her husband to the end? To give away his apartment, to give away all his possessions, to leave his job, to stay in the same skirt with a sweater and shoes on his bare feet – and to wander the streets, instead of sleeping in a warm bed, praying all night long in the piercing wind? Women, who among us will go to hunger and cold for the sake of a husband - for the sake of saving his life? Because Ksenia saved her husband's life, eternal life. And not a day or two, but 45 years. Almost half a century. Who among us, widowed at the age of 26, will pray for the sins of his husband until the age of 71, and just continue to love him? We can't do that. And she knew how to do it.

The widow came to the funeral in her husband's uniform, and she wore it until it decayed. And then, until the end of her life, she wore the same outfit, changing it as the previous one turned into rags: shoes on bare feet, a green or red skirt, a green or red sweater - probably in memory of the green and red uniform of Andrei Fedorovich.

She gave away all the property. I signed the house with the estate to a friend, Praskovya Antonova. She only insisted that a shelter for the poor be built on the territory of the estate. Built. It existed for a century and a half. Back in 1918, on this very place, in this very building, there was a Pokrovsky orphanage for 40 boys.

Ksenia herself spent the night wherever she could.

She didn't need a home anymore.

But to you, who have a family, who have children, who have problems with housing, St. Xenia will definitely help.