Long ago, in ancient times, God said to Abraham: "If I find ten righteous men in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole city and the whole place for their sake" (Genesis 18:26-32). So Xenia was one of those righteous women for whom the prodigal city stands.

Today there are also prayer books for us. Not everyone knows about them. But who knows, he goes for spiritual help and guidance. Those who do not know use their feat. Because the city and the country, the whole earth, stand only by the mercy of God, which He sends for the prayers of the righteous. Saving the city, saving the country, saving the world. This is the function of saints at all times.

An amazing incident occurred in St. Petersburg. First, 28-year-old nurse Oksana Popova had a terrible dream: her 22-year-old brother Dimka was beaten and kicked by some drunken thugs. "So they beat him to death in front of me," Oksana told the Megapolis-Express columnist. "The bloody head is shaking in the dust, and they are kicking it. I scream and wake up in a cold, sticky sweat."

When the girl told her grandmother about her terrible dream, she gasped and dropped the ladle from her hands. It turns out that the grandmother had exactly the same dream: a bloody Dimka in the dust under the feet of the scum. In the evening, it turned out that the mother also had an identical dream. A terrible silence reigned in the apartment.

And then Dimka returned from the institute and announced that he was leaving for a friend in the suburban village of Kavgolovo until Monday. There was no way to keep the guy, and Dmitry only laughed at the story of a triple dream and left home for the night.

The women who remained at home were seized with horror. Unable to do anything, they went to their rooms and, without agreeing, began to pray. As it turned out later, everyone prayed (also without agreeing!) to one single saint – Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, who was revered in this family more than anyone else. At one o'clock in the morning, a sudden doorbell rang.

On the threshold stood Dimka, flushed from the frost. When asked why he returned home halfway, the guy reluctantly muttered: "I've changed my mind!" After drinking a glass of vodka, Dimka fell asleep soundly, and in the morning he told his grandmother, mother and sister the following. At one of the stops, a strange, lightly dressed woman in a handkerchief entered the train car and sat down right in front of him. From the gaze of her blue eyes, Dmitry was simply numb. At the next stop, a group of drunken hefty men tumbled into the car. Sitting nearby, they drank beer, cursed loudly.

Suddenly, Dimka's fellow traveler stood up and, taking the guy by the sleeve of his down jacket, pulled him into the vestibule. He tried to object, but he heard a confident and soft female voice inside him: "Let's go!" The door closed, the train slowly picked up speed, and Dmitry managed to see how a drunken fight began inside the car they had left. Looking around, he found that he was standing on a snow-covered platform all alone. Instantly sweating with fear, the guy ran across the tracks and soon was returning home on the oncoming train. The next morning, Oksana took her brother to the Smolensk cemetery in the small chapel of Xenia of St. Petersburg.

The student, who did not believe in God, looked at the image of the saint and whispered with white lips: "Lord, it's her!"

V. Dobrov. Megapolis-Express.2004. September 2

Servant of God Blessed Xenia at night in the Smolensk Cemetery?