Foolishness, in its essence, is not at all hysterical, on the contrary, there is an undoubted supreme sobriety in it, but it is cramped within the boundaries of one earthly principle, in it there is a strong thirst to assert the primacy of spiritual truth both in the individual and in the world. It is radical and bold, and it exudes a genuine, religious inspiration to which everyone bows.

Foolishness is an expression of the fact that in the combination of the divine and the human, the heavenly and the earthly, the heavenly should never bow down before the earthly. Let the divine remain inexpressible, but there should be neither hypocrisy nor rapture in the poetry of the world with oblivion of the heavenly beauty that cannot be contained in our life. This is not Platonism, but the affirmation of the hierarchical principle, i.e., the subordination of the earthly to the heavenly."6

In Russia, they loved and revered holy fools. Of the 36 canonized holy fools, 30 were Russians. According to the historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, the holy fool in Russia was "a walking worldly conscience, a living image of the exposure of human vices."

FROM THE BANKS OF THE MOKSHA TO THE BANKS OF THE NEVA

For Christ's sake, one cannot become a fool of one's own free will and desire. A blessing is certainly needed for this. It is known that St. Xenia was absent from St. Petersburg for almost eight years. Where did she spend these years? It is unknown, but here is an assumption.

On the southern border of the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the Mordovian forests, on the banks of the Moksha River, stands the Sanaksar Monastery. Founded in the middle of the XVII century, the monastery fell into decay a hundred years later. It was revived by Elder Theodore, whose story seems to be closely intertwined with the story of Xenia and her husband.

In 1719, a son Ioann was born in the family estate of the Ushakovs. Like any nobleman of that time, he received a decent home education, and when he came of age, his parents sent him to the Preobrazhensky Regiment. Friends around were also young and carefree. But one day at an officer's feast, one of the young soldiers, for no reason at all, suddenly fell dead in front of everyone. Healthy, strong, and in a moment – and the man was gone. This happened just at the time when the young Colonel Andrei Fedorovich suddenly died without repentance and church guidance. Wasn't it Petrov? Some suggest that yes, it is.

Struck by the sudden death of his comrade, the brilliant young guardsman Ivan Ushakov abandoned everything: friends, career, military duty and fled to the forests, to seek, to beg for the salvation of his soul. Or the soul of a friend? God knows. And he was only twenty years old. He became a monk, took monastic vows with the name Theodore and devoted his life to prayer and the revival of the Sanaksar monastery, becoming its abbot. For fifteen years he lived in the monastery, under him it turned into one of the main centers of Russian spiritual life. The Monk Theodore of Sanaksar was canonized.

Not far from Sanaksar, Hegumen Theodore founded the Alexis Convent, and it seems that Xenia, his acquaintance from St. Petersburg, the widow of an officer who died suddenly, lived in it for several years.