Among our most famous clergymen were many veterans of the Great Patriotic War, who left their posterity memories of their combat past, of wonderful meetings on the roads of war. This is what the viceroy of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery Archimandrite Alypius (Voronov) told about himself.
In his youth he was an unbeliever. When the Great Patriotic War began, he, an officer, was called to the front. His mother gave him a farewell icon of the Mother of God and bequeathed: “Son, when it is difficult for you, take out the icon, pray to the Mother of God – She will help you!” The mother’s message did not fade from memory: it warmed, inspired hope.
Once with a group of his soldiers he was surrounded in the woods, was wounded. On three sides — the Germans, on the fourth — a viscous swamp. That’s when he remembered his mother’s order. He left a little behind his own, took out the icon and, as he could, began to pray: “The Virgin, if You are, help!” He prayed and returned to his family, and an old woman stood next to them, addressing them: “What, are you lost, sons?” Come on, I will show you the path. And led them all down the path to their own.
Father Alypius fell behind again and said to the old woman: “Well, mother, I do not know how to thank you!” And the “old woman” answered him: “And you will serve Me for the rest of your life!” and disappeared, as if it had not been. That’s when he remembered his mother’s farewell farewell message, only then he realized what an “old woman” she was!
And those words turned out to be false: indeed, he served all the life of the Mother of God — for many years he was the viceroy of the Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersk Monastery.
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