On the eve of the memorial day of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, on February 5, the Museum of the History of Religion hosted a press screening of the collection dedicated to the patron saint of St. Petersburg.
The collection has mainly been formed over the last 30 years. These are icons, drawings, lithographs, sculptures made of wood, Easter eggs with the image of a saint. Of particular interest is the mosaic sketch for the Church of St. Xenia of St. Petersburg in Sestroretsk by Svetlana Kobysheva (2015). There is also a graphic icon by the icon painter Dmitry Mironenko. Artists often depict Ksenia in a recognizable St. Petersburg setting: against the background of silhouettes of buildings, fragments of embankments.
During the Soviet years, when the Blessed Xenia Chapel was closed, believers left notes with requests in the cracks of its walls. Sometimes people left requests for the blessed one right on the walls of the chapel. Fragments of the plaster of the chapel of Xenia at the Smolensky Cemetery are kept in the fund of scientific and auxiliary materials.

"The saint took upon herself the feat of foolishness, and for 45 years she wandered the streets of the young city of St. Petersburg," said Elena Denisova, chief curator of the Museum of Fine Arts. - It was in the eighteenth century, she died at the beginning of the nineteenth, although there is no documentary evidence. The Museum of the History of Religion collects all artifacts related to a particular religion. Our collection of Orthodoxy is extensive, it contains images of Blessed Xenia, who was canonized on June 6, 1988, the year when the millennium of the Baptism of Rus was celebrated. The pilgrimage to Xenia began from the moment of her burial and continues to this day, and we are collecting artifacts related to this historical phenomenon. Her veneration spread throughout Russia. Modern artists often turn to her image - we have icons, graphics and sculpture. But I want to pay special attention to the fragments of plaster. Despite the fact that in Soviet times they struggled with "remnants of the past," the flow of people to the chapel did not stop. It was closed several times, the last one was in 1962. The chapel was dilapidated, the plaster was crumbling. Our staff went on local expeditions, and thus a part of the plaster was assembled on which the inscriptions can be read. Ksenia was approached with various requests. This includes assistance in court and assistance in the exchange of an apartment. Negligent students threw notes asking for help to pass the exam. The early images on the two engravings date back to the end of the 19th century, these are images of the not yet canonized Xenia. The wooden sculpture by Boris Sergeev is a gift from 2016. The collection will be replenished, and artists are constantly turning to the image of the saint, because she is a symbol of our city."
Svetlana Klimenko, a researcher at the museum, said that, according to indirect data, Xenia the Blessed was born between 1716 and 1731, and died between 1790 and 1826. It was written on the tombstone that the servant of God Ksenia Grigorievna, who was widowed at the age of 26 and wandered for 45 years, was buried here. When she took on the feat of foolishness, she gave her house to a friend. There are stories that doctors have conducted an examination to see if she really can manage her property, if she has gone mad. And they concluded that she was sane and could dispose of the property as she wanted. There is evidence that when the construction of the Smolenskaya Church at Smolensky Cemetery began, Ksenia was followed and saw that she was dragging bricks to the scaffolding at night. And most importantly, Ksenia worked wonders. In those days, it was believed that if she approached a person, gave something or asked for something, it was a good sign. If a cabman gives Ksenia a ride, then there will be a good income that day, and the merchants gave her something, treated her to something, then their trade was going well. Xenia predicted the death of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the murder of Prince John Antonovich. She often predicted something to ordinary people, helped to create families. It is known that Ksenia not only helps in creating a family, but also turns away unwanted marriage. This is evidenced by one of her posthumous miracles. There is a version that after this miracle, the girl's mother, freed from an unwanted marriage, invested money in the construction of the chapel. Her daughter was getting married, and just before the wedding, she and her mother went to Xenia to pray, and after that she never saw her fiance again - it turned out that he was not the one he pretended to be.

The journalists were shown notes from the museum's collections from the 1960s. Some of them are written in pen and ink, that is, prepared in advance, and there are notes in pencil - they could have been written right at the cemetery. The requests were mostly utilitarian: to take an exam, go to university, turn away from alcohol, prescribe a servant of God so-and-so.

The grave of the blessed one immediately became an object of pilgrimage. At first, there was only a mound over her grave, and people began to pull it apart. Then they put up a tombstone, it was also split into pieces and pulled apart. Then they decided to build a chapel and collected donations. The first chapel was built in the 19th century, and it was mentioned in 1878. It stood until the beginning of the 20th century, in 1902 a chapel was built according to the design of Alexander Vseslavin, which still exists today.

Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg spent 45 years in foolishness and died at the beginning of the 19th century. She was buried in the Smolensk cemetery. On June 6, 1988, after many years of popular veneration, she was canonized by the Local Cathedral.