Daniil Achinsky

December 12, 1784, the day after the church commemoration of the Monk Daniil Stolpnik , in the town of Novye Sanzhary of the Kobelyak district of the Poltava province, a boy was born into a family of Cossacks by the name of Deliye. At baptism they called him Daniel . The boy grew quiet and unfamiliar. His father, Cornelius Delius, lost his mind 20 years before his death, but died a Christian death in Holy Week. It is known about the mother that Agafya Deliye was known as a good housewife and an honest woman.

At the age of fifteen, Daniel fell ill with fever, and the family began to fear that his father’s fate was awaiting him, but after two months he completely recovered. Having learned to play the bass , he began to play music with his comrades, but at the request of his grandfather, he left this occupation and, replacing his sick father, set to work on the household. However, in 1807 he was taken into the ranks of soldiers. They identified Daniel Delieu in artillery , there, at the battery school, he learned to read and write .

In the Patriotic War of 1812 , Daniel participated in combat battles against the large army of Napoleon . His military path also passed through the Borodino field . God kept him: of the eight people serving the artillery, only two survived - Daniel and another soldier. Together with the Russian troops, fleeing the enemy, the gunner Delieux reached Paris . And on his return, his battery was quartered in the city of Lebedyan . From there in 1820 he came on vacation to his relatives in Novye Sanzhary .

By that time, Daniel Delieu had reached the rank of non-commissioned officer and was acting as Captenarmus . But on a visit, life led a strict one: he prayed a lot and spoke at home about the need for daily prayer , read spiritual books, and told relatives about their contents. Returning to the battery, he gave his brother Ivan 25 rubles with the words that he had transferred the rest of the money to decorate the icons . He gave his relatives and his part of the land allotment. Parting with his relatives, Daniel bowed to them and said: “Goodbye. Don't expect me to come again ... "

Zealous service to the tsar and the Fatherland began to yield more and more to the desire to serve God . This was facilitated by the reading of the Holy Scriptures , the lives of the saints, who made an irresistible impression on Daniel. He changed his mind about many deep thoughts and reached the intention to imitate the righteous: to withdraw from the bustle and impermanence of the world into solitude for prayers and asceticism. After seventeen years of impeccable military service, Daniel began to ask his superiors to let him go to the monastery , or to deserts , but did not find understanding. The commanders tried to admonish him, put him even in a punishment cell , but he only strengthened his decision even more. In the end, a trial was held in the case of Daniel Delieux. They tried him for "his intention to completely withdraw from service for desertification", deprived him of his military rank and appointed a link.

Daniel came to Siberia along with criminals in shackles. Upon arrival, they appointed him to work for life in the Bogotol distillery, which was then in the Tomsk province (now the city of Bogotol belongs to the Krasnoyarsk Territory ). The local bailiff hated the humble convict and began to assign the most difficult work to him. But Daniel was fastened in God and did not weaken. Having worked all day, at night he stood in prayer. The bailiff mocked him more and more. One winter, reaching a frenzy, he ordered to strip Daniel, put him on the roof and water it there. At the same time, he shouted from below, taunting: “Save yourself! You are a saint! ”

But it was not Daniel who became ill after this incident, but his tormentor. Yes, so much that he reasoned and realized how badly he sinned before God. Sincerely repenting of his unseemly deeds, he began to ask Daniel to pray to the Lord for him. The prayer of the righteous can do a lot, soon the bailiff recovered completely, and then submitted a report to the governor about the release of Deliah from hard labor as incapable of hard work.

Having received freedom, Daniel settled in Achinsk in a small cell of a god-loving merchant. The hermit chose a cruel life here: constant labor, asceticism and unceasing prayer. Soon he moved to the village of Zertsaly , seventeen miles from Achinsk. There his cell was the size of a coffin, the window in the cell the size of a copper dime . For weeks on end, he stayed in this conclusion without any relief. Sometimes in the hallway he was engaged in needlework. But he didn’t take money for labor, he took only bread for food. He secretly went out at night to work with the poor, cultivated the land for them, stinged, mowed, worked in the vegetable gardens.

To humble the flesh, he wore a birchbark belt, which later grew into his body (he was buried with him). He also wore iron chains and a hoop, but shortly before his death he took them off and explained this: “My body is used to it and does not feel illness from them, but then only a feat is useful when it restrains the body. Let people speak better of me: "Daniel is now spilled." It will be better for me than their praise. ”

People began to go to Daniel for a blessing, for advice, and others only to look at him. One kind of ascetic acted irresistibly on the soul. Occasionally, stubborn sinners wept and revealed their sins, sensing the impact of the grace of God, clearly in the old man. I tried to speak in parables and so that it was understandable only to those to whom these words were addressed. Local lords and the Archbishop of Irkutsk, Mikhail, called in to the Mirrors. And, it happened, they cried during a conversation with Daniel.

The elder forbade calling himself a father, saying that only our father is the Lord God, and we are all brothers, and therefore ordered us to call ourselves “Brother Daniel”. The Lord granted him the gift of insight for his labors. It so happened that when someone from Achinsk was going to see him in the Mirrors, he, seeing this intention, himself came to those people who had a great need for him. The love that filled his heart poured out in tears, without which he could not speak. “A poor person can also show mercy,” the old man used to say when they asked him about alms . “Help the poor, work for him, comfort him with a word, pray to God for him, and through this you can show love to your neighbor.”

Daniel began Holy Communion very often. From the post, his body became like a wax, but despite the severity of his exploits, he was pleasant and even cheerful, often a little blush covered his cheeks. From constant standing on his knees scabs formed and worms started there. But the elder complacently endured these torments.

Once, for the sake of curiosity, a man crawled up to the window of his cell, when suddenly a flame broke out and nearly scorched the curious. Daniel, who came to his cry, said: "God will forgive you, but do not test it from now on." Having surrendered to God, he felt His right hand above himself and knew His will. By the will of God in January 1843, Daniel left Zertsal to Yeniseysk , where the abbess of the women's Christ’s monastery (now Iversky ) was his spiritual daughter - mother Eugene (Starikova). On the advice of him, she left the world, and before that she lived in Achinsk , then proposed to arrange a cell for Daniil in the garden near her house, but he refused: “Here you will live on hard ground, I will come to you. You will bury me. ” So according to him, it happened.

On April 15 (old style), in 1843, the elder Daniel confessed for the last time, took communion at an early mass, and died quietly on his knees during the reading day. This happened on Easter - on Thursday of the Bright Week at four in the afternoon, in the fifty-ninth year of his difficult life. Upon death, a living joyful smile was imprinted on the face of a righteous old man.

The whole city of Yeniseisk was at his funeral service . Although many did not have time to recognize Daniel during his lifetime, but the rumor about his righteousness and the special gifts of God was ahead of the elder everywhere. During the funeral service, a special light filled the temple, and many felt an unearthly fragrance. And the blind forerunner of Mother Superior Eugenia saw a bright light, like a flash of lightning.

The old man was buried near the Church of the Nativity of Christ, where a chapel was built by the zeal of his admirers.

The first, probably, biography of Elder Daniil was made by the schema- parfeny (Ageev) - “The Tale of life and deeds in Bose of the late Elder Daniil, who worked in the Siberian country, in the Yenisei province, within the city of Achinsk, and died on April 15 in the Yenisei Nativity of Christ 1843 during the abbess of Eumenia, ”published in 1855.

Pilgrims continued to come to Yeniseisk to the grave of an old man, tea and get help and comfort.

On May 1, 1920, by order of the authorities, the relics of a righteous old man were excavated and put on public display by the townspeople, and the chapel was demolished. Since then, the whereabouts of the Daniel relics is not known.

In 1999, Elder Daniel was glorified in the Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei diocese as a locally revered saint . In 2000, a church was erected in Krasnoyarsk in the name of St. Daniel Achinsky. In Achinsk in 2009, the construction of the chapel of St. Daniel was completed. In 2008, in the village of Bely Yar in the Achinsk region, church services began in the house church of St. Daniel of Achinsk ^[1] .

A quote from Troparia : “ Angelically, on the land of the elderly and with angelic ranks in heaven, now lightly rejoicing saints, who shone in the land of Siberia, sing with songs: Rejoice, righteous Daniel, who has come to Siberia with God's delight and enlightened your holiness of life. Pray for us the Eternal God. "

The memory of the righteous Daniel takes place on April 28 (April 15 of the old style) and June 23 (June 10 of the old style) ( Cathedral of the Siberian Saints ).

• Maistrenko V.A. Quiet Light Mirror. The life and posthumous glory of the righteous old man Daniel Achinsky. - Krasnoyarsk: Yenisei Evangelism, 2006 .-- 120 p.
• Maistrenko V.A. Answer me, brother Daniel! On the roads of the saints. - Krasnoyarsk: Yenisei Evangelism, 2009 .-- 256 p.
• Kochetov D. B. Daniil Achinsky // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church and Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2007. - T. XIV. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89572-024-0 .

• Daniel Achinsky righteous old man on the website of the Krasnoyarsk diocese
• Saint Righteous Daniil Achinsky On the life and deeds of the elder Daniil Achinsky (from the book “Kazan Cathedral is 175 years old”)
• Rev. Daniel Achinsky
• Akathist to Saint Righteous Daniel Achinsky
• Church buildings in honor of the elder Daniil Achinsky in the Krasnoyarsk Territory (inaccessible link)