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Histoires providentielles
n°188

Russia

16th century

Gury of Kazan: freed from his prison by a "great light"

In the late 1520s, the young Grigory Grigoryevich Rugotin (future Saint Gury of Kazan) from a poor aristocratic family in Radonezh, Russia, entered the service of Prince Ivan Penkov, who ruled the region. He was noticed for his excellent work and won his master's trust, but this earned him the jealousy of the prince's servants, who accused him of being the lover of Princess Penkova. After narrowly escaping the death penalty, Grigory was sentenced to life in prison. His subsistence was reduced to a jug of water and a bowl of porridge twice a week. This merciless treatment should have killed him.

Shutterstock / Art Mari
Shutterstock / Art Mari

Reasons to believe:

  • The crime of which the young man was accused - adultery with his lord's wife - was particularly serious, since it represented a crime of treason punished by death. As he had never been officially cleared of this crime, the circumstances surrounding his release had to be miraculous for Grigory's entourage and his biographer to mention the alleged crime and charge against the saint.
  • The young man's great piety and the penances he inflicted on himself proved the accusations to be groundless. However, desirous of imitating the martyrs, whom he admired, and of suffering to contribute to the deliverance of Russia, which was then under the yoke of the Golden Horde (Muslim Tatar tribes who persecuted the Christians), Grigory neither spoke in his own defence nor proclaimed his innocence, imitating Christ before Pilate: "And Jesus didn't answer him one word" (Mt 27:14; Mk 15:05; Lk 23:9; Jn 19:9), and growing in holiness. Instead of complaining, he thanked God for "having taken him away from this world and its temptations". He spent his time writing a small booklet to teach children how to read and write, and donated the proceeds from his primer to the needy.

  • His conditions of imprisonment, in a dungeon, practically in isolation, deprived of care and food, resemble those endured by other witnesses to Christ in modern times, and we know that, without miraculous help, these conditions lead to death, despair or insanity. Only a very strong spiritual life can keep those witnesses alive.
  • In his humility, a sign of his holiness, Grigory never mentioned the graces he had received, preferring to record the facts rather than explain them or talk about miracles.
  • By giving him only two jugs of water a week and two bowls of oatmeal porridge, his jailers hoped for malnutrition and death. However, when his friend, Prince Penkov's first-born so from a first marriage, tried to provide him with sufficient food after he had been spared execution, the prisoner replied that he didn't need it because "God's abundant grace is more than enough to feed me." This was true, since he did not wither away, and found the strength to write to help the poor.

  • If we want to know how Saint Gury of Kazan resisted this treatment and escaped, he only mentions the support and help of the Theotokos, the Mother of God,  represented by a small icon of Mary that he was able to keep in his prison and which protected him.
  • The account of his deliverance is extraordinarily sober: "One day I saw a great light behind the door of my dungeon. I prayed, the light increased and I got out without further difficulty."

  • This simple account is reminiscent of Saint Peter's escape from prison in Jerusalem, where he was awaiting execution. Its simplicity is a guarantee of authenticity.

Summary:

Born around 1500 in Radonezh, Russia, Grigory Grigoryevich Rugotin entered the service of the town's governor, Prince Penkov, and became steward of his estates. He was accused by jealous servants of improprieties with his master's young wife. He refused to defend himself, leaving it to God to prove his innocence and clear his name.

Thanks to the intervention of Penkov's eldest son, he escaped death, but was locked up in an underground dungeon in conditions that were intended to kill him. Instead of complaining, Grigory gave thanks to Heaven for having sheltered him from the turpitudes of this world.

After two years, he miraculously escaped, then entered the monastery of Saint Joseph in Volokolamsk, where he took the name of Gury, or Gurias. In 1543, he was elected superior (Igumen) of his community, but left this position due to health problems. Tsar Ivan IV, admiring his virtues, appointed him head of another monastery, in Selijanov - a position he held between 1546 and 1555, when the Tsar, who had just reconquered Kazan and the surrounding region, appointed him bishop of the city.

The diocese he took over was still largely populated by Muslims and Tatars. But Gury refused to use coercion in religious matters, and obtained from Tsar Ivan the right to convert people solely through gentleness and example - a programme that he carried out until his death on 5 December 1563.

On October 4, 1595, the incorrupt relics of the holy hierarchs Gurias and Barsanuphius were uncovered. Saint Hermogenes, Metropolitan of Kazan (May 12), was present at the uncovering of their relics, and he described this event in the lives of these saints.

A specialist in the history of the Church, postulator of a cause for beatification and journalist for a number of Catholic media, Anne Bernet is the author of over forty books, most of them devoted to sanctity.


Going further:

The Life of Gurias and Barsanuphius was recounted by Hermogenes, Bishop of Kazan, in 1589.


More information:

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