[Martin Stu]

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I recently read a book... called "Everyday Saints and Other Stories"... the priest wrote this book... Well, what could be interesting here? some clergyman talks about episodes of his life... I put off reading for a long time, and then began to read and... until I finished reading, I could not tear myself away
it turns out this book is a bestseller, total circulation in different languages ​​3 million copies... the book has humor, unusual incidents, etc (including mysticism or so let's say unexplained incidents).
author: "I have not needed to imagine anything. Everything you are about to read really happened. Most of the people you will read about are alive and well today."
from chapter - Exorcism
"ONLY ONCE IN my life did I attend an exorcism—but that was more than enough.
It was performed by Father Adrian: literally devilish and inhuman cries and shouts eerily resounding in a church packed full of people.
The people were growling, bleating, squealing, and crowing.
Some were cursing so vilely that I wanted to cover my ears.
Others were spinning on the ground like tops and slamming themselves with force onto the floor—and in all
these cases it was obvious that these people absolutely had no desire to do what they were doing.
One welleducated and obviously intellectual man with a face that seemed scared to death was running around the church
oinking and snorting like a pig or a wild boar, and finally collapsed with exhaustion only after he was forcibly grabbed and dragged to the priest, who sprinkled holy water on him.
The Russian word for exorcism is "otchitka" (old Russian word), meaning a “reading-out” —a prayer rite for the driving out of demons.
It is frightful to describe this procedure, and even more frightful to be present during such things. How Father Adrian was able to stand it, I have no idea.
Father Adrian began his monastic path in the Holy Trinity Monastery.
There he was also involved in exorcisms, but secretly, so that no one would notice. They took place in a little church far off the beaten paths of the tourists.
It is said that one day high-ranking Soviet authorities arrived at the monastery and, unfortunately for themselves, wished to inspect all of the sites of the monastery without any exceptions.
This included the outof-the-way church from which strange yells were emerging.
There was no refusing such high-ranking officials, so the monks brought them into the church, where a sluggishly speaking and extremely disheveled Father Adrian happened to be saying the exorcism prayers. The visitors were petrified when they saw people rolling around on the floor and screaming with savage voices.
But imagine the shock of these high-ranking Soviet guests when one of the ladies who had come along with their group, who happened to be herself a very high-ranking official, suddenly began to hiss and meow like a cat in heat, screaming and rolling around the floor of the entire church—on top of which she began using such language that even experienced men of the world have never heard anything more revolting....
The lady began to visit the monastery frequently, confessed all the sins of her life, and took Communion. The demonic attacks ceased and were never repeated....
Exorcism, or the driving out of demons from a person, is not only a nerve-racking but also an extremely dangerous procedure.
Witnessing just a single such rite is enough to convince oneself of this fact. However, all of these remarks relate to real exorcisms. For it must be said that without doubt there are cases of fake possession, or
cases where the patients are really only just psychologically ill people. There are also particularly revolting cases, where people are playing games of “exorcism” and claiming to be “healers.”
Naturally, not all priests are capable of carrying out the rite of exorcism of demons. Father Adrian was practically the only one who did such work during the 1980s. Supposedly there was also a Father Vasily in
Vask-Narva, Estonia, who could also do it... I myself was only once involved in a similar kind of matter. But, of course, it was not an exorcism, just the
continuation of the baptism of a young boy that had not been finished by the unknown priest who had started the procedure.
At that time I was serving in the Donskoy Monastery. I was approached by a man of about forty, a lieutenant colonel of the police named Valery Ivanovich Postoyev. He was a nonbeliever, and had not even been
baptized, but he had nowhere to go except the Church. He had an only son also named Valery to whom unthinkable things were happening. In the presence of this boy all kinds of objects started to light on fire—all by themselves. Whenever Valery would appear, everything would start to burn: refrigerators, pillows, tables, beds, chests of drawers . . . The Postoyev family ceased to pay visits to others, because within twenty minutes of their visiting, fires broke out. For the same reason they could not let their boy go to school.
Valery was looked at by everyone: doctors and psychics and officers of the FSB* and various other secret organizations of state security—all in vain. Various newspapers ran sensational stories with photographs of the boy and the fires he had caused. But the parents had no desire for such glory. “Just in case”, they even had had their son baptized.
Desperate, the policeman wandered into the Donskoy Monastery. Someone had suggested that he pray at the recently discovered relics of the revered Patriarch Tikhon. That is where I met him.
I couldn’t understand why it was that the fires hadn’t stopped occurring after the baptism. At least, not until I asked the question: how long did the boy’s baptism take?
The lieutenant colonel answered that it all had taken less than half an hour.
Normally the baptism of one person takes a lot longer. And so I understood everything: the priest who had performed the sacrament had omitted certain ancient prayers, which in the Church are known as exorcism prayers. There are only four of them, and several of them are quite long. Unfortunately, it does happen that certain priests, especially those who as they would say today are of a “modernistic” bent, omit these prayers, believing them to be unnecessary. Yet it is precisely through these prayers that the Church, by the power given to it by God, asks for the deliverance of the human soul from the ancient evil lurking and nestling within. But our modernists believe all of this to be strange and archaic.
They are afraid to seem anachronistic and ridiculous in the eyes of their parishioners—although I have never once noticed that these prayers during baptism raised a hint of a smile even among people who were little connected to the Church.
I wrote to Father John about Valery Postoyev, and he answered me that I needed to finish reading the exorcism prayers from the baptismal rite that had been left out by the previous priest.
And that is precisely what we did in the Church of the Donskoy Monastery. From that very day the fires ceased. Lieutenant Colonel Valery Ivanovich Postoyev was baptized himself, and all of his family then
became our parishioners. The young boy is long since grown up and is now also a police major—in fact, he works as a teacher in the Moscow Police Academy—but keeps the memory of what happened to him in the past through photographs of fires in his family’s apartment."
these cases resemble the plot of some famous Hollywood movies... but still, who knows ... Everyday Saints and Other Stories
found a book in a free electronic version book

hopefully interested?

[timb64]

The Fort by Bernard Cornwell an entertaining historical novel about The Penobscot Expedition of 1779, one of Britain’s last successful engagements with the American rebels before you kicked us out!

[Martin Stu]

I'm giving my mind a short break from longer, more challenging reads, with "Night Terrors: The Ghost Stories of E.F. Benson" - a large collection of stories not unlike those of M.R. James, with a somewhat misleading title, as there's quite a range of supernatural and otherwise weird tales within. Mostly written in the early years of the 20th century, they're very much of their time - and all the more endearing for that...

once read the story "Viy", the story was written long before the birth of Bram Stoker...
Just to quote the comments of just two out of many readers ("Вий" / "Viy" - by Nikolai Gogol): "It is strange how I can read Horror novels or a Thriller and be not impressed at all, and then I decide to re-read this short tale (at day-time) and I find myself being so freaked out that I can't fall asleep.
Usually I don't mind the dead very much, or ghost or evil spirits, but the ones from this tale get under my skin every single time.
Maybe it is the simple write-style, maybe it is the eerie atmosphere that is established from the very beginning, I honestly don't know, but every time I read this tale I am really terrified.
Or it is the fact that I sometimes imagine myself standing inside an old church at night, reading prayers next to an open coffin of a witch that tried to enslave me. And c'mon, who wants to experience such a situation?!
Anyway, it is one of the scariest tales I have ever read, and I read every single one of Poe's tales and many contemporary horror novels."
"The story started out in a silly, almost satirical way. It gets even goofier a little further on, but once the main character gets to the village, things get REALLY creepy! The thing ends with some very horrific imagery that actually mirrors those seen in modern horror films like "Ringu". If you are a horror fan, check this one out."
I found a collection of Gogol's stories on an Amazon (including "Viy") The Mantle and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol, Fiction, Classics, Literary Hardcover – August 1, 2011

[robgski]

Many interesting books recently mentioned. Still reading the biography of Calvin Coolidge despite distractions. It is amazing how so many of current issues in domestic politics are related to those of 100 years ago. Also, I need to change my habits more towards reading at least a chapter a day of pilgrims Progress rather than wasting time netsurfing until I fall asleep. At least I have kept up on my course of reading the Bible in a year. Recently I saw a plan to read and discuss the Divine Comedy in a year. I am interested in this because I had listened to a very good audio version during my long commutes during 2019, and I would like to dive into it more deeply this time around. I have a large edition with illustrations by Gustav Dore, well worth the purchase for the artwork alone.
Next week I have some long trips over 10 days, I hope that will allow me time to complete the audiobook I just received from the library.

[robgski]

That Everyday Saints book does intrigue me as well.

[Martin Stu]

That Everyday Saints book does intrigue me as well.

now I do not have time, I need to go ... later I will tell you a very interesting case.. from a scientific point of view of explanation it is impossible, at least I cannot explain it... some kind of suggestion, hypnosis, mysticism? I don't understand how this is possible ... it was the healing of a girl... my wife told me about it, she saw it herself...

[lesmore49]

Ocean Prey by John Sandford

[Martin Stu]

That Everyday Saints book does intrigue me as well.

I'm not a very religious person, but this book impressed me, but I wanted to share... The author, Archimandrite Tikhon, explains the meaning of the title of his book "Everyday Saints" in the chapter of the same name:
"I named this last chapter of my book “Everyday Saints.”
Yet my friends were all ordinary people. There are many
like them in our Church. And of course they are very far
indeed from canonization. It’s quite out of the question.
Yet, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, when the great
mystery of the Eucharist is finished and the Holy Gifts are
placed upon the altar table, the priest proclaims: “Holy
things are for the holy!” What this means is that the Body
and the Blood of Christ are now being taken in by holy
people. But who are these people? They are the people
who are now in our Church, priests and laypersons alike,
coming here to us with faith and waiting for Communion.
They do this because they are faithful Christians who are
yearning to draw closer to God. It turns out that in spite of
our frailties and sins, we, the people who compose the
Church on earth are, to God, also saints."

Now I will continue to tell (Sorry in advance for my English)... my wife said: "at that time she was a young girl, she came to visit her second cousin, sister was also a young girl (about the same age), she lived in an apartment building... in the same house, in one entrance, there lived an elderly woman with unusual abilities (now they would say a psychic), with an appearance like that of the most ordinary woman, a little plump and rather tall, gray hair on her head, twisted into a bun and only by looking closely, you can see that there is something in her light blue eyes - something unusual ...at that time this woman was in my sister's apartment... my sister's mother asked to help one sick girl suffering from epileptic seizures... the doorbell rings, a woman enters with her daughter, she really carried her daughter on herself, her daughter could hardly walk... the psychic was left alone with the sick girl, and we were all kicked out of the room into the cook room and the door was tightly closed... we sat down at the table, my sister poured us tea ... and suddenly there were terrible inhuman screams, I dropped my mug of tea in surprise, how rude men shouted at each other, as if arguing with each other, it was so creepy.. then the screams stopped and a psychic came up to us and said: the girl is sleeping now, then in a week there will be a session again... then the girl woke up and her mother took her away, they left in a taxi... a week later I visited my sister again, and the same thing happened again, but this time the girl was screaming not so loudly and in a shorter time ... after that the girl stopped seizures... then after years I found out that this girl got married and there were no more seizures... then this psychic told us a lot of interesting things ... I must say that her own daughter forbade her to practice such a practice (her daughter was a communist), but nevertheless she urged her to help her work colleague ... this woman became very ill, doctors could not understand her condition ... and she told how she got into this woman's house and went to the kitchen, but some force literally threw her out of the kitchen to the threshold of the door... she also said that for some reason she could not go to church... this psychic woman has long been gone, it was the 80s, she was not young even then... "
years passed, recently I told about this incident at work, and suddenly one woman told me: "I know this girl! This girl told how she was with that psychic woman and that the psychic did not touch her hands, but it was so painful , as if a psychic was pulling something out of me, my whole body ached, everything ached, it was very painful... "
I don’t know how to explain it... what is hidden in us and how some people can influence our inner strength and give healing or something else, I cannot understand? but i know it is possible...
I also know cases, my mother-in-law told me one such case, she was also a young girl, she overextended herself, her back hurt, so she could not get out of bed (this was after the war, at the end of the 40s, at that time she lived in the village)... if you're interested, I'll tell you...

[Martin Stu]

I read this book: Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper (Greenhill Sniper Library) Hardcover – May 3, 2018
This girl (she was then only 25 years old) was recalled from the front, where she was a sniper, and sent to a student conference in the United States in 1942 (before the war she was a university student. Historian)... oddly enough she made friends with Eleanor Roosevelt...

Here is an excerpt from the video story of Lyudmila (that was the name of this Stalinist sniper) I watched: “Probably, we (three Russian snipers, including her) had to sit under surveillance for more than a day, sit and watch where this Ace (in the sense of a German sniper) is? We found an enemy sniper, he was behind the front line and behind his submachine gunners ... our guys decided to try to take him prisoner ... he went quietly, without resisting, he was taken to a neutral zone ... and that means they demanded his sniper book, there was a number in the sniper book - 502! stood like this - 501, two bold lines, such accounting and then there was a unit ... we asked him: where did 501 come from? where, in what areas did you work? How many people did you kill? Is it in battles? Gradually it turned out that the Nazi sniper graduated from the officer's sniper school, and then he was sent to get used to murders, to guard the death camps ... I, of course, do not know, do you? but I still cannot understand how a sniper can kill a woman on the parade ground ... a child ... a man who is in captivity, without weapons in his hands ... in my opinion, this is inhumanly cruel..."

I, like many others, watched "Schindler's List", there was a guard who "mastered the technique", shot prisoners with a sniper rifle. I thought that this episode of the movie might be fictional...

[Martin Stu]

who loves tales of explorers and trackers? then you can read or listen to this audiobook... This book was written by V. Arseniev, a researcher of the Far East region... the main character is a pathfinder from a forest tribe named Dersu Uzala... Arseniev wrote the book from his travel diaries ... a primeval forest, meeting with the Ussuri tigers, the legendary plant Ginseng, skirmishes with Honghuzi (Chinese robbers), etc.
book: Dersu the Trapper
audiobook: Dersu the Trapper (sometimes for some reason the site takes a long time to load, you need to wait)
from annotation: "In this Russian counterpart to The Journals of Lewis and Clark and the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, Arseniev combines the precise observations of a naturalist with an exciting narrative of real-life adventure".

[clackers]

I read this book: Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper (Greenhill Sniper Library) Hardcover – Illustrated, May 3, 2018
This girl (she was then only 25 years old) was recalled from the front, where she was a sniper, and sent to a student conference in the United States in 1942 (before the war she was a university student. Historian)... oddly enough she made friends with Eleanor Roosevelt...

Here is an excerpt from the video story of Lyudmila (that was the name of this Stalinist sniper) I watched: “Probably, we (three Russian snipers, including her) had to sit under surveillance for more than a day, sit and watch where this Ace (in the sense of a German sniper) is? We found an enemy sniper, he was behind the front line and behind his submachine gunners ... our guys decided to try to take him prisoner ... he went quietly, without resisting, he was taken to a neutral zone ... and that means they demanded his sniper book, there was a number in the sniper book - 502! stood like this - 501, two bold lines, such accounting and then there was a unit ... we asked him: where did 501 come from? where, in what areas did you work? How many people did you kill? Is it in battles? Gradually it turned out that the Nazi sniper graduated from the officer's sniper school, and then he was sent to get used to murders, to guard the death camps ... I, of course, do not know, do you? but I still cannot understand how a sniper can kill a woman on the parade ground ... a child ... a man who is in captivity, without weapons in his hands ... in my opinion, this is inhumanly cruel..."

I, like many others, watched "Schindler's List", there was a guard who "mastered the technique", shot prisoners with a sniper rifle. I thought that this episode of the movie might be fictional...

'Battle of Sebastopol' is a Russian drama film about Ludmilla. There is also a character inspired by her in the Jude Law/Ed Harris movie 'Enemy At The Gates'.

[Martin Stu]

'Battle of Sebastopol' is a Russian drama film about Ludmilla.

I read this book: Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper (Greenhill Sniper Library) Hardcover – May 3, 2018

sorry, corrected the link to the book - Lady Death: The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper (Greenhill Sniper Library) Hardcover – May 3, 2018

In America, she was presented with a Colt pistol, and in Canada - a Winchester rifle (the latter is exhibited at the Central Museum of the Russian Armed Forces in Moscow). American country singer Woody Guthrie wrote the song "Miss Pavlichenko".... about her, during a visit to the United States, a wealthy American proposed to her to be his wife (such a somewhat curious case), despite her terrible specialty as a sniper, she was a charming woman.... but she didn't have to fight anymore, she became a sniper training instructor.

Before the war, this smart and intelligent woman studied at the university and in her free time was engaged in shooting sports (she was also engaged in glider flights).

[timb64]

V2 by Robert Harris,a fascinating cat-and-mouse tale of a German scientist working on the Vengeance rocket weapon targeted at London (and Belgium) at the end of WW2 and a young WAAF officer trying to track the launch sites.Thoroughly recommended.Another example of war-time research leading to massive leaps in technology.

[Martin Stu]

'Battle of Sebastopol' is a Russian drama film about Ludmilla. There is also a character inspired by her in the Jude Law/Ed Harris movie 'Enemy At The Gates'.

I watched these films the day before yesterday, thank you.

[Nakedgun]

Just completed: "The Guns of John Moses Browning, The Remarkable Story Of The Inventor Whose Firearms Changed The World" by Nathan Gorenstein, 2021, 270 pages.

Recommended.

.