Blessed Nicholas of Pskov

Blessed Nicholas of Pskov laboured as a fool for Christ for more than three decades. The God-pleasing father received the grace of wonderworking and prophecy. His fellow townspeople called him “Mikula”, which means blessed, holy fool.

In February 1570 the enraged Ivan the Terrible came up to Pskov, whose inhabitants he accused of treason. The city, in peril, stood in prayer. In the morning, when the ringing of the bells called the faithful to Matins, a wonderful tenderness suddenly came over the autocrat’s soul, and, calmed, he commanded: “Blunt your swords; let the bloodshed cease!”

The people of Pskov poured into the streets. Everyone knelt before his house and offered the king bread and salt. In one street Mikola the fool, riding on a stick, ran out to meet Ivan the Terrible and cried out: “Ivanushka, eat bread and salt, and stop drinking human blood.” The king ordered the fool to be seized, but he vanished at once.

Ivan the Terrible gave up the slaughter, but intended to plunder the city. He attended a service of prayer in the Trinity Cathedral and wished to receive the blessed Nicholas’s blessing too. The holy father said to the king, who had come to his cell: “Do not touch us, passer-by; go away from us, or you will have nothing to flee on,” and then denounced him without fear.

Ivan paid no heed to the warning and ordered the bell of the Trinity Cathedral to be taken down. No sooner had he given the order than his best horse fell dead. This miracle shook the king; convicted by his conscience, he was horrified, at once stopped the plundering, and fled from the city.

The saint died on 28 February 1578.