Clearly, you are a God who works behind the scenes, God of Israel, Savior God. Isaiah 45:15
“Much of Xenia’s life remains a mystery as we know neither the dates of her birth nor her death, but only that she lived in eighteenth century Russia… It would seem that she led a rather comfortable life, and it is known that she was happily married and devoted to her husband, Col. Andrei Feodorovich Petrov, a chanter in the imperial court.
When she was twenty-six years of age, her husband died suddenly by some accounts as a result of over-imbibing at a drinking party. Inconsolable in her grief at her husband’s death, she turned her heart entirely to contemplating the Kingdom of heaven and disdained anything of the world. Giving away all her personal possessions to the poor, she threw off all ties to worldly things…
Once she had divested herself of all her belongings, Xenia disappeared from St. Petersburg for a time. It is not known where she was during this time, but it is believed that she may have spent those eight years in a convent where she learned about spiritual life and the prayer of the heart and where she further advanced her desires to be a fool for Christ…
In tune the people of St. Petersburg grew to see Xenia not as a beggar but as someone quite special… For a long time, no one knew where Xenia spent her nights. She could be seen wandering the streets and fields during daylight, but she seemed just to disappear after sunset. The police investigated the situation and found that she would spend her nights in an open field, praying and making prostrations all through the night…
Near the end of the saint’s earthly life, a church was being built in the Smolensk cemetery. The construction workers noticed during the night, while they were all home asleep, someone would move large bundles of bricks to the top of the building where they were needed the next day.
Curious to know what charitable crew was moving such heavy material for them, the workers posted a watchman one night to discover whom to thank. They were amazed to learn that it was the aged Xenia who would move the bricks for them, granted the strength to do so by an unseen Hand.”
Xenia of St. Petersburg (eighteenth century) in Holy Fools: The Lives of Twenty Fools for Christ by Oswin Craton (Chesterton: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2024) 123-129.
This marks the last of 20 fools for Christ. Perhaps Craton saved the best for last. How cool that an old lady moved bricks to help people in the darkness of night, never seeking attention. That’s generosity.
What bricks might you and I move today?
I travel to Brazil this Sunday for two weeks of program work to multiply stewards and form a working group to set up a peer accountability group. I need to pray where to direct my reading next. Stay tuned.