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You are using the new servers! |The deaf hear mute said the blind see
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聋子听哑巴说瞎子看到爱
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其他类似问题
聋子听哑巴说瞎子看胡说八道的意思。。
聋子听见哑巴说瞎子看到了挚爱
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Hear with Your Heart: a Talk with Archpriest Andrei Goryachev, Rector of the Community of Deaf and Blind, Deaf, and Mute People in Moscow,
This wonderful community gathers at the Church of the
Tikhvin icon of the Most Holy Mother of God at the former
Simonov Monastery in Moscow—one of the most ancient
monasteries of the Russian capital. Today, we are talking
with Archpriest Andrei Goryachev, rector of this church,
who speaks the same language as those who cannot hear and
understands perfectly those who cannot speak.
These people need our aid. They are unable to call an
ambulance or complain about one or another problem aloud,
although they do have many problems.
Fr. Andrei has served at the former Simonov Monastery
for over twenty years. He has also been assisting several
boarding-schools for deaf and mentally handicapped
children in remote regions of Russia.
Today, we are discussing the ways in which deaf people
live in a world full of sounds, the difficulties in
communication between hearing and profoundly deaf people,
specifics of church services for such people, and their
church life. Fr. Andrei will also tell us about the work
he and his parishioners are doing for the restoration of
the monastery and its ruined graveyards.
Archpriest Andrei Goryachev
&We distance ourselves from the deaf,
and not the other way round&
—Fr. Andrei, what kinds of barriers stand
between a hearing person and a person with a hearing
impairment?
—Unfortunately, very few people are concerned with
the ways in which deaf people perceive the world around
them. These few are mainly people who work with the deaf,
or have hearing-impaired children (or other relatives)
themselves. Ordinary people with good hearing avoid these
barriers entirely, simply because they are not prepared to
communicate with deaf people and feel uncomfortable around
them. Psychologically, most people feel awkward when they
do not hear the sounds they are accustomed to in any
verbal communication, as is the case when they interact
with hearing-impaired people. Because a deaf person cannot
hear his voice, and therefore cannot control its timbre
and volume, a hearing ear will sometimes find the
resulting sounds discomfiting. Because of these
communication barriers, problems of deaf people often
remain unsolved.
—Deaf people form their own communities. For
some, it may seem that these are rather closed, private
groups. Is this true?
—It is we who distance ourselves from the deaf and
not the other way around. Hearing-impaired people live
active lives, just as we do. Once they are diagnosed with
hearing loss, deaf children are sent to specialized
nursery schools from their infancy. There, they are taught
according to special programs and receive hearing aids.
Next, they study at general education schools and then
continue their education at ordinary colleges or
universities (depending on their academic achievements at
secondary general education schools). The only difference
is that their process of studying is longer than at
ordinary schools. They are taught absolutely the same
programs. As they become adults, they get married and
work. They live with us, in our common world, but we
choose to close our eyes and ignore persons with this
particular type of disability. We choose not to regard
them as disabled people. We typically perceive as
handicapped those with some outward sign of their
disability: blind people with white canes, lame people
with crutches, or paralyzed people in wheelchairs.
However, the deaf are handicapped, too, and they face a
huge number of problems of a somatic nature. Unless they
are communicating with each other using sign language, we
often do not notice such people in public places. As far
as their communities are concerned, yes, they do have, for
example, the Deaf Association and the Moscow Theater of
Gesture and Mime—there are even honored actors among
those who work there. So, they live active lives, although
we do not see this—or do not want to see
it—for one reason or another.
—The latter point is more likely: we are not
inclined to see people with any sort of problems. We
usually &have no time& for problems.
Most of us are living in a hustle and bustle and we are,
indeed, &too busy& to think more deeply on
many serious issues. Moreover, as I have already said,
hearing-impaired persons do not attract our attention with
outward indicators of their disability. You will not go
unaware past a person walking on crutches or moving on a
wheelchair—and these people frequently beg for money
as a means of subsistence—but we cannot distinguish
a deaf person in a large crowd. Meanwhile, they face far
more serious problems than the disabled of many other
categories.
Captives of the world of sounds
Before Communion
—What makes the life of deaf people so
difficult? After all, they can ambulate and are able to
see everything…
—Life is difficult because they have no hearing and,
therefore, they lack the information field in which the
rest of us live. If a deaf person suddenly feels unwell,
how can he call an ambulance? If a fire starts in his
flat, how can he call a brigade of firefighters? He cannot
speak on the telephone! In any emergency situation, he
will be faced with many difficulties. How will he speak at
a housing maintenance office, for example? Here is a
common situation: a hearing-impaired person cannot hear
water flowing from the water tap and thus floods the
neighbors living in a flat below. What usually happens in
these situations? His neighbor from downstairs will come
and knock on his front door. Even if a hearing-impaired
person opens the door (fitted with a special flashing
light signal), all the same, he will not be able to hear
the flow of words hurled at him in annoyance and
irritation by the neighbor.
—Do deaf people have to face such aggression
frequently?
—The deaf often have to face aggression and .
Many people are simply unwilling to speak to them. Here is
one egregious example: once, a deaf, elderly woman came to
my church and said she felt very sick. I suggested she go
to the doctor as soon as possible—but the doctor at
the outpatient clinic would not take the trouble to speak
to her and understand her! He took no time to understand
that this woman was disabled, that she was deaf. He simply
said he had no time to use writing as a method of
communicating with her during her appointment.
—It appears that the disabled are treated as
second-rate citizens…
The icon, “Healing of a Deafblind Man”
and the deaf realize this themselves, through the way
they are treated by others. Do you know what I did in
that situation? I wrote a very polite letter to that
doctor on behalf of the elderly woman, indicating
everything she had tried to explain him the day
before: &Good afternoon, doctor! I am deaf. I
feel very sick. I have such-and-such symptoms.&
Then, she came to the same doctor with this letter.
Having read the letter, the doctor called an
the woman was taken to a hospital and was
treated there for a month. So, that poor woman
received care and attention only after I had
made an appeal on her behalf! I regularly have to
write similar appeals for all sorts of instances,
whenever my parishioners face this incomprehension of
their problems or unwillingness to understand them.
I do not condemn these individuals who appear to be so
lacking in compassion. Nevertheless, if a person appeals
to you, you must do your best to help and understand him,
instead of turning your back on him. Alas, the situation
is quite the opposite of what one would hope for in
outpatient clinics, social protection departments,
financial settlement centers, or housing maintenance
offices. The deaf take this unwillingness to understand
them very badly. Having faced this lack of understanding
so many times in their lives, more times than we can even
imagine, they become very vulnerable.
—Hearing is such an important instrument of
cognition in our world and a necessary means of
communication. The absence of hearing renders
hearing-impaired people very different from the rest of
the world. What are some of the peculiarities of deaf
—Their life is different from ours in many aspects.
The development and formation of personality in deaf
people is an absolutely different process. The personality
of a normal child begins to develop by his imitation of
the sounds that he hears around him. He hears how his mum,
dad, and granny speak, how a door creaks, how a spoon
clangs on the plate, how his feet stamp as he goes, and so
forth. This is the way in which associative links are
formed. Deaf children have none of this experience.
Therefore, their development proceeds differently and
there are important psychological differences in their
perception of the world around them. Hearing-impaired
people often perceive everything very concretely, without
any compromises. In many ways, their thinking could be
called &black and white.&
This particularity develops from their childhood, and a
deaf person bears this throughout his life. You must not
steal, you must not deceive, you must be just to others,
and so on. This person will never act in a different
way—he will never take what does not belong to him
and he will never be rude to others. Yes, he will be hurt,
his heart will ache, and he will feel humiliation as any
other person does, but he will never answer rude words
with rude words. The hearing-impaired are purer than many
of us, and this is true of their spirituality as well.
They believe in God like ,
even as adults.
—&The Lord sends situations which
strengthen one&s faith&
At a service
—How do deaf people come to believe in
—That is a very difficult question to answer,
an abstract category, not at all concrete—it is
impossible to touch or see it. We, as people with perfect
hearing, comprehend and experience our faith on a
conscious level and through our abstract thinking. The
deaf have a more concrete and objective way of thinking.
This makes it very difficult to explain the meaning of
faith to them and it is difficult for them to grasp it, to
enter into faith. It is helpful if a person has a visual
memory of how his grandmother used to pray when he was a
child. If he remembers an icon, a lit vigil lamp, being
taken to church—these memories will give life to his
faith. If there are vivid childhood memories and
impressions, then faith can be built in adulthood on this
foundation. Still, sometimes it happens that a person
comes to church, not understanding what it is like at all,
but the Lord sends to him situations which strengthen him
in prayer and faith. Through this, he comes to understand
that he cannot live without it.
—Fr. Andrei, how was your congregation at
Simonov Monastery formed? How did you build relationships
with deaf, blind, and mute people?
—From the very beginning, when everything around
here was a ruin, deaf people had a special attitude
towards the house of God. For example, deaf people
consider it bad manners to come into a church in
outerwear. Most of us do not think about it at all. We
enter a church and do not even shake the snow from our
collars. For the hearing-impaired, this is unthinkable.
These people have a particular
must necessarily take their outerwear off immediately,
because this is a special holy site where people pray. So,
we had our own &cloakroom,& where we took off
our coats.
As you and I know, it is easy to enter and leave a church
unnoticed. Once, a deaf woman came to us for the first
time, and, after the service, it emerged that her leather
overcoat with a fur collar had been stolen. That was a
tragedy and a shock. At the very least, I had to find
something for her, straight away. Then, I thought to
myself, &this woman will now go home in this short
jacket we have given her, in place of her leather coat
with a fur collar, and we are sure to never see her again.
Why should she return to the place where she was robbed?
Further, she will think that the church is a place where
bad people and robbers gather.& I said to my
parishioners, &Let us pray.& I cannot say that
I firmly believed we would find the stolen overcoat, but
we did pray. All of us prayed. On the following day, at
the entrance to the metro, one of our parishioners spotted
a homeless woman with several coats on her, wearing the
coat that had been lost at our church over all of them!
The coat was returned, but that is not the end of the
story. The woman whose coat had disappeared at our church
did return to us, and we gave her the coat back! These
answered prayers become irrefutable facts for deaf people
and, for all of us, these facts are indicative of our need
for faith in God and of our need to join together in
prayer to Him. There were a great many similar miracles.
Some occurred even with those who came to our church just
to have a look, curious to know what is happening there,
why some priest is waving his hands. Many came out of mere
curiosity only to remain forever. By the way, many former
members of Baptist communities and Jehovah&s
Witnesses joined us. It was hard for them to break out of
the habits they had acquired in those sects, but
nevertheless, they have remained with us, glory to God.
This is the grace of God. Joint prayer contributes to
great inner spiritual changes in a person!
Feeling the joy of giving
—In what year did you begin serving at
Simonov Monastery?
—We have held services for the deaf here since 1995.
It has touched me to the heart and moved me to tears, to
see these people change over the course of time. At first,
all of them used to tell me: &Our disability is the
most severe and our hardships are the worst.&
Indeed, I realized that their hardships were among the
greatest. However, I observed how people who used to
define themselves in this way changed gradually. At first,
they often asked: &Why should I prepare an
intercession list?& &Why should I take this
candle and pay money for it? It will burn out and what
will I gain from that?& Many of the first
parishioners came with this mindset: &I am
handicapped. I am supposed to receive such-and-such
things. Please, give them to me!& They had no idea
that all of us must give something, too. Little
by little, their way of
they began
to realize that the more you give, the more you will
receive in return—kindness, concern, and love will
return to you.
In the year 2000, the first people who were blind, deaf,
and mute came to us. Now, deaf parishioners saw, with
their own eyes, those in a worse situation than their
own—these people could not even travel alone and
were all but totally isolated from this world. Here is a
person who can neither see nor hear, but he comes to a
service! So, our deaf parishioners decided among
themselves to help the blind, deaf, and mute by explaining
the Liturgy to them by means of the tactile
signing—&hand-into-hand.& This is the
way the deaf, blind, and mute communicate. For me, it was
such a great surprise, such a great spiritual joy, that I
have probably not experienced any greater. It was
wonderful to see those who had not long before beaten
their breasts, crying: &We live with the most severe
disability! We need such-and-such things!& begin to
help others who were in a worse situation than their own.
These are the moments, revealed by God, that truly show
how a person is spiritually transformed.
A &soundless& Liturgy—beyond the
—Do your parishioners understand church
services thoroughly?
—These people know church services even better than
we do! I am able to ask any of them to help me during a
service, because they know perfectly well the unchangeable
parts of the Divine Liturgy: antiphons, the Cherubic Hymn,
the Creed, &Our Father,& and so on. They can
communicate all of this in sign language, in my stead, to
those standing at a church service.
At a service
—Do you have acolytes as well?
—No, we have neither acolytes nor choristers. For
some time, we did have a choir but then we decided we did
not need it any more. I literally began to demand that
deaf people &utter& all unchangeable parts of
the Divine Liturgy, both with their voices and by means of
signs, instead of the choir, just as I always do. The
result, owing to this demand, in addition to our joint
prayers, is wonderful. First, they no longer feel fatigued
during services and, second, they speak with their own
voices and better control them. If, earlier, they did not
speak at all or would speak only in extreme cases, now
they are no longer ashamed of their voices and they speak
without fear. Most importantly, the barriers which usually
exist between hearing and deaf people have been broken
down. There are no such barriers here. Today, deaf
believers take part in pilgrimage trips in the same groups
with hearing believers. They confess and take Communion of
the Body and Blood of Christ, communicating with priests
who do not know sign language. This demonstrates clearly
that they have overcome their fear of hearing people.
—And does this fear really appear
initially?
Parishioners
it does. They are afraid of not being understood, of
being rejected, of not having enough time to
communicate what they need or want to say. They now
confess and take Communion. They will attend services
at other churches because they know the Liturgy well.
I ask them: &How do you know where you are in
the Liturgy in other churches, when a priest has his
back to the congregation?& (As for me, I always
serve facing the congregation). &It is
easy,& they answer. &If a service has
commenced, then either a priest or a deacon exclaims:
&In peace, let us pray to the Lord.& If
he ends, that means the first antiphon begins. After
that, the &Again and again…&
exclamation follows, followed by the second antiphon.
The procession is next, then the Epistle, followed by
the Gospel.& Today, if they are going to some
other church or on a pilgrimage, they will have read
the Epistle and the Gospel of the day, beforehand.
During the service, they will recall these texts.
—This is the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit,
which enters into the hearts and souls of those who
possess a sincere faith, who believe with a pure soul. Of
course, there are many problems and difficulties. To begin
with, a person who cannot hear external sounds is very
sensitive to himself, e he is highly
attuned to any kind of pain and ailment. The rest of us
might ignore such complaints, but, for the
hearing-impaired, any slight complaint matters.
—So, they are very sensitive and often feel
—Yes, to some extent. They are anxious about their
health because of this heightened awareness: if they feel
unwell, a doctor probably will not understand them, which
leads to anxiety about their health.
The most important thing is this: the hearing-impaired
people who came to us are now beyond the communication
barriers that once held them back. Although the deaf live
near to and around us, they nevertheless hide within a
shell, withdrawing into their tiny world, their own social
environment. They communicate with each other, not with
us. There are specific places and premises where they
gather and spend time together, but this is a limited
communication among the deaf community only. We will not
go there and even if we are invited, we will not
understand what we experience there, anyway.
—As a pastor, do you know couples in which
one spouse is hearing and the other is deaf?
—Yes, there are such couples.
—Please, tell us about this in more
—There are very many problems in these situations.
Even if we consider an ordinary, non-disabled couple, we
already find many issues in family life, especially when
all the rush of romantic emotion dwindles and everyday
life begins. If we consider a couple in which one spouse
is deaf, then problems double, triple, increase five-fold,
and so forth. Partly due to our efforts, this church has
become a real home to the deaf community, and that makes
me feel a great joy. I try to treat every parishioner as a
family member. It may sound too lofty but, truly, we are a
By voice and signs
—Fr. Andrei, a sign on your monastery gate
reads that you are a community of deaf and blind, deaf,
and mute people.
—That is just what is written there. We are an
unusual parish church. At first, I tried to resolve the
questions of our dual identity, but I was instructed that
we could have only one juridical entity. Either we are a
religious organization, under the jurisdiction of the
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, or we are a disabled
organization and are therefore subordinated to the
All-Russian Society of the Deaf [the former is
true—Ed.]. This is w
perhaps it will inspire a hearing person to stop for a
moment, think about it and ask: &They are deaf or
blind, deaf, and mute! How do you communicate with
—How long did it take you to master sign
language and break down the psychological
Archpriest Andrei Goryachev
master this language?! It is impossible to master it.
This is a life and environment of continuous work.
This is true of any foreign language—you can
learn it, but you will be able to speak in it only
when you are in its environment. Many of us have
studied foreign languages at schools and
universities, but when we visited foreign countries
where the language was spoken, very few of us felt
free there.
—We work and make progress here all the time.
Unified sign language is not taught at schools as the
R there is no instruction on how to
write and speak sign language properly. Sign language is
recognized as a means of interpersonal communication, but
it is not recognized officially as a language, therefore,
it cannot be taught at schools and in a consistent manner
(for example, this sign means this word and that sign
means that word). In reality, there are many different
variants of word-signs, therefore, sign language is often
perceived not only through signs, but also through
articulation.
It is gratifying to know that our church has become a
place where people come not only to pray and express their
spiritual religious feelings, but also to communicate,
celebrate birthdays, name days, wedding anniversaries,
births of children, and so forth. A full-fledged life can
be found here. When any elderly parishioners are absent at
services for a week or two, people begin to worry, to find
out what happened, and to see if they can help and support
one another.
—Do you serve any particular Liturgies for
the blind, deaf, and mute? Are any services performed with
a choir, familiar to ordinary hearing people, held at your
—All services here are held with the use of voice
and signs simultaneously. The clergy include myself and a
deaf priest who, on my recommendation, was first ordained
a deacon and, later, a presbyter. He is the first and, so
far, the only deaf priest—Fr. Valentin Terekhov.
—Does he confess?
—He serves and confesses like me. It took a great
deal of time and difficulty for us to determine the way in
which we would serve together. I am always so happy to
hear these words from people who come to us for the first
time and ask, in amazement: &Is he really deaf? He
does not look or sound deaf at all!&
—Does Fr. Valentin utter the words of a
service aloud?
Priest Valentin Terekhov
he does. Like me, he holds all services using his
voice and sign language simultaneously and we
communicate with each other in this manner. I
communicate with our parishioners in this manner,
too. Everything is based on signs and articulation.
Not everybody can &read& words from lips,
but the sign language is known to all.
—Can hearing people attend your
—Why not? You are welcome! We are not a closed
territory.
—Do people with normal hearing come often?
What is their reaction to your services?
—In most cases, those with normal hearing who attend
our services have relatives with hearing impairments.
Also, elderly people who lived on the territory of Simonov
Monastery in their childhood come to us. When the
monastery was closed, many structures were on its
territory, including barracks. Those who spent their
childhood here—those who would play, run, and jump
here—are glad that services have resumed at the
church and monastery. To them, it does not matter that no
choir sings at services. They are happy to come and
worship together with us. We have come to love each other
over these years.
Most of those whom you will see at our services are our
parishioners. &Strangers& do not often come to
us. For an average person, it is considerably difficult to
fully enjoy our service. There are many churches offering
beautiful choir-singing, rather than our cacophony, which
is not for all. Still, just as parents rejoice when their
baby utters its very first word, I always rejoice when
someone who first refused to speak begins to speak and I
hear his voice at the service.
After a service
—When they begin to speak, these people
become more deeply integrated into our
&hearing& society, don&t they?
—Not only that. They begin to live among us. A
process of spiritual and social rehabilitation is
occurring. The hearing-impaired do not feel very
comfortable finding themselves among twenty or thirty
hearing individuals. Likewise, you will not feel
comfortable finding yourself among twenty or thirty deaf
people who speak a specific language among themselves
which you do not speak. But such a situation is often
normal for a hearing-impaired person. The atmosphere at
our church is different. They are the masters of the
situation here and they must explain to hearing visitors
how to light a candle properly, how to prepare an
intercession list, or how to order a prayer service or a
memorial service. At first, they were scared, but now they
feel more confident and are able to help explain something
or rebuke someone on their own.
—You have truly developed a school or a
university! People undergo a real rehabilitation course in
your church.
—There is no course here. At the very beginning,
when we were about to start services, we indeed studied at
desks, explaining the meaning of each new word, because
the vocabulary of deaf people lacked many of the terms and
words which you will need during a church service. Now,
these classes are held at the Sunday school run by Fr.
Valentin. This has become a kind of transfer of skills,
from the experienced to the young, who are newcomers here
and have a desire to work with us for some amount of time.
&Buy a sick child a hearing
—How can a non-disabled person help your
community? What can a person who sees and hears well do
—Perhaps my words will be perceived ambiguously by
some, but one can help us only financially, by
transferring money to the settlement account of our
church. Please note that you can direct your donation by
marking the &Type of Payment& section in the
following ways: &aid to disabled children,&
&communal public services& (and we pay a great
deal for these, because we own many buildings),
&repair-and-renewal operations,& or
&general church needs.& These funds are also
used for the support of four boarding-schools, to which we
give spiritual guidance.
—Where are these four
boarding-schools?
—These schools are in the Kaluga, Bryansk, and
Vladimir regions. They are boarding-schools for deaf-blind
and mentally retarded children. We assist children who
live outside Moscow and, therefore, in very difficult
conditions. It is also a mutual enrichment of both our own
deaf people and those whom we visit.
The Theater of Sign Language Song
—How often do you visit these
boarding-schools?
—Frequently! We visit with our Theater of Sign
Language Song and show our stage adaptations. This is
both performance and communication at the same time. For
these boarding-school students, it is an opportunity to
talk with disabled children of the same category who
believe in God. This is a great chance to hear about the
faith and God from other deaf people!
They eagerly anticipate our visits. We try to provide them
with everything they need: books, toothbrushes,
toothpaste, shampoo, and so forth. We help them to obtain
text-books, interactive boards, and special equipment for
dining-rooms, workshops, and classrooms. All of this
becomes possible because of the generous donors who help
us. How else can one help? Buy a disabled child a hearing
aid! Together with the director of the Otofon
rehabilitation center for the deaf, we examine children
and choose hearing aids for them. We have collaborated
with this center already for fifteen years. They serve the
boarding-schools of Kaluga, Novozybkov (the Bryansk
region), and Kirov. If a deaf child is from a deaf family,
he usually has no opportunity to obtain a hearing
aid—and it is impossible to study without one. Such
children will develop too slowly. By the way, batteries
for hearing aids are expensive and, as a rule, neither
boarding-schools nor parents can afford to buy them.
Sometimes, situations are very difficult. Once, in winter,
we went to one district center for Christmas greetings and
left presents there. Later, I was told that one mother had
called from a village and asked: &Please, if
possible, find a way to deliver these presents to my home,
as I cannot afford the journey to them—I must
instead buy some milk for my children with this
The aid rendered to us is substantial and significant. I
thank everyone who transfers money to our settlement
account so that we can have the opportunity to obtain
hearing aids for deaf children in order that they might
study well.
&Our icon has been streaming myrrh for many
—You mentioned how all that is necessary for
your services was prepared by those under your care. Did
they take part in repairing of your church building as
—I cannot say that the repair was done by their
hands, though they were actively involved in garbage
disposal, putting things in order, and beautifying this
place. However, our vestments, bookmarks, cloths used at
services—all of this was made by the hands of our
parishioners. There are many excellent cutters,
seamstresses, carpenters, and ebonists among them and they
are continually contributing to the beautification of the
Special icons for the blind
—We are not holding services in our central church
at the moment, due to the emergency state of its stairs
and the observation deck, which will be under repair
shortly. We worship in the lower church, at present. The
south side-chapel of our church, where we began our
spiritual life, has special icons for the blind, which we
ordered after the blind, deaf, and mute had joined our
community in 2000.
—Is one permitted to touch these special
—Yes, one is permitted to touch them, and the
depiction of the icon is indicated in Braille (a form of
written language for blind people in which characters are
represented by patterns of raised dots that are felt with
the fingertips).
Special icons for the blind
The north side-chapel is the last of the central
church&s five side-altars on which restoration work
is approaching completion.
—I know that you possess a decorated and
specially-venerated icon of the Mother of God.
—This is the icon of the Mother of God called
&Softener of Evil Hearts& and it was painted
by a deaf iconographer. This icon has been streaming myrrh
for years. It began when the myrrh-streaming,
wonderworking icon called &Softener of Evil
Hearts& visited our parish in 2003. That was the
first experience for our deaf parishioners of this
kind—we were receiving a constant influx of hearing
believers at our then-ruined church, which was in very
hard conditions. Deaf people received hearing people! That
spiritually encouraged our folk and acted as a great
incentive for them. As a result, our people decided to
adorn and develop our church further and wanted to have a
copy of the &Softener of Evil Hearts& icon at
our church forever. They said: &We very often
encounter people&s evi
therefore, such an icon is relevant for us.& So, I
asked our deaf iconographer to paint such an icon. He did
so, and this icon began emitting myrrh. Drops of myrrh
have been seen here for over thirteen years.
The “Softener of Hardened Hearts” icon of the Mother of God
The decorations you have mentioned are tokens of gratitude
left by people who prayed before this icon, asked the
intercession of the Heavenly Queen, and received what they
asked for. These ornaments are not very expensive, but
they are spiritually invaluable. Their presence indicates
that people did not forget the help they received and they
came here to thank the Mother of God, bringing what they
held dearest of all, with them, as a gift. These are
neither gold, nor platinum, nor are they gold bullion, but
these are all precious donations to the Holy Theotokos.
&The main miracle is a full church life of
people who are deaf or blind, deaf, and
—Fr. Andrei, what is the greatest miracle
that you have witnessed at Simonov Monastery?
—A great many miracles are occurring here, but you
must have spiritual sight to see them. For me, the main
miracle is a full church life of people who are deaf or
blind, deaf, and mute. Another miracle is a priest,
elevated from the deaf-and-mute community, who serves
Divine Liturgies, either with me or on his own while I
listen to confessions. This miracle is not only for me to
see, but for all who see and understand what is happening
here by the mercy of God.
Bright Week at Simonov Monastery
—With what words would you like to address
hearing people? What should we understand about those who
cannot hear?
—I do not think that any special words are needed
here. I think we should simply be considerate and kind to
others, not distinguishing between the blind and deaf, the
legless and armless. One should continually have love in
his heart and respect for his neighbors, not forgetting
that any and every person is an image of God, just like
us. We must correspond to this image of God in our love,
care, and compassion for others.
Church details for those who wish to
Full name:
Religious Organization: &Dependency of the Patriarch
of Moscow and All Russia of the Church of the Tikhvin Icon
of the Mother of God of Simonov Monastery of the City of
Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate&
Legal Address
De facto address
115280 Russia, Moscow, Ul. Vostochnaya, 4
Telephone/fax: (495) 675-21-95
Telephone: (495) 675-45-54
ИНН/КПП (Federal Tax ID)
ОКАТО
Bank details:
Settlement account:
Correspondent account:
Bank name: &Peresvet& Joint-Stock Commercial
Bank Joint-Stock Company, the City of Moscow
http://hram.deafnet.ru/
spoke with
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