Consoler of Suffering Hearts:

The Life, Counsels and Miracles

of Eldress Rachel,

Visionary of Russia

by Archpriest Sergei Lebedev

    Eldress Rachel wandered thousands of miles barefoot through Russia, in the tradition of The Way of a Pilgrim, praying all the while. Her humility and fervency for God resulted in a close connection with the spiritual world and the citizens of heaven, especially with the Most Pure Mother of God. She beheld many heavenly visions and received Divine visitations. With the gift of prophecy and discernment she helped those who flocked to her for guidance during the latter part of her blessed life. She saw clearly into their hearts and lives. Weighed down by deep sorrows and afflictions of soul and body, they experienced interior spiritual renewal through their meetings with Eldress Rachel, who counseled them with great wisdom and consoled them with her all-embracing love.

    In her cell "I saw rivers of tears which dried up under the tender warmth of the Eldress' loving heart. I also saw the poor and the wealthy, the educated and the uneducated, listening submissively with deep humility to the beneficent instructions and consolations of Mother Rachel. I trembled. For the first time in my life I stood near a blessed one and saw how the power of God was made perfect in all her infirmities."

-Archpriest Sergei Lebedev, author and spiritual son

    In 1928 the great ascetic and wonderworker reposed in blessedness in the Borodino monastery of the Savior. In July of 1996 she was locally canonized as a Saint by the Russian Orthodox Church.

227 pages, 49 illustrations, full-color cover, paperback, $12.00
ISBN 1-997904-35-2