Prayers to Blessed Xenia of Petersburg

Troparion, Tone 7

Having loved the poverty of Christ, / you now delight in the immortal banquet; / through your seeming madness you exposed the madness of the world, / and through the humility of the cross you received the power of God. / Therefore, having gained the gift of miraculous help, / O blessed Xenia, pray to Christ our God // that through repentance we may be delivered from every evil.

Kontakion, Tone 3

Having lived as a stranger on earth / and sighed for your heavenly homeland, / you are thought foolish by the senseless and unbelieving, / but recognized as wise and holy by the faithful, / and crowned by God with glory and honor, / O Xenia, courageous in spirit and filled with divine wisdom. / Therefore we cry to you: // Rejoice, for after your earthly wandering you dwell in the Father’s house.

First Prayer

O holy and all-blessed Mother Xenia! You lived beneath the protection of the Most High, guided and upheld by the Mother of God; you suffered hunger and thirst, cold and heat, insults and persecution; you received from God the gift of foreknowledge and of working miracles, and you rest beneath the shelter of the Almighty. Now the Holy Church glorifies you as a fragrant flower.

Standing at your burial place, before your holy image, we pray to you as one alive and present with us: receive our petitions and bring them to the throne of the merciful heavenly Father, for you have boldness before Him. Ask eternal salvation for those who turn to you, a generous blessing upon our good deeds and undertakings, and deliverance from every trouble and sorrow. Stand before our all-merciful Savior with your holy prayers for us, unworthy and sinful.

O holy and blessed Mother Xenia, help infants to be illumined with the light of Holy Baptism and sealed with the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit; help boys and girls to grow in faith, honesty, the fear of God, and chastity, and grant them success in their learning. Heal the sick and the weak; grant love and harmony to families; enable monastics to persevere in the good struggle and shield them from insults; strengthen pastors by the power of the Holy Spirit; keep our people and country in peace and tranquility; and plead with God for those deprived of Communion in Christ’s Holy Mysteries at the hour of death.

For you are our hope and trust, swift to hear and deliver us; we offer you thanks, and with you we glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Second Prayer

O glorious, holy, and blessed Mother Xenia, our fervent intercessor before God! As people once fell before your tomb, so now, after your glorification, we turn to your relics and ask: pray to the Lord that He may sanctify our souls and bodies, enlighten our minds, and cleanse our conscience from every defilement, from impure thoughts, wicked and blasphemous designs, and every form of self-exaltation, pride and conceit, arrogance and insolence, all the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and every shameful and wicked habit of ours; that He may grant us sincere repentance, contrition of heart, humility of mind, meekness and quietness, reverence, and spiritual understanding with all prudence and thanksgiving.

You who concealed yourself from the wise of this age, yet are known to God: ask deliverance from grievous troubles for our Russian land, and renewal and amendment of our whole life. Preserve us in every pious and Orthodox confession of the Christian faith, so that, honoring you, we may be counted worthy all our days to sing to, thank, and glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial, life-giving, and undivided Trinity, unto ages of ages. Amen.

Third Prayer

O holy servant of God, blessed Xenia! Look mercifully upon us, God’s servants (names), who pray with compunction before your honored icon and ask your help and intercession. Lift up your fervent prayers to the Lord our God and ask forgiveness of sins for our souls. For with contrite hearts and humble spirits we call upon you as a merciful advocate before the Master and an intercessor for us sinners, since you have received from Him the grace to pray for us and deliver us from troubles.

We therefore ask you: do not disregard us, unworthy though we are, who pray to you and need your help. Obtain for everyone all that is beneficial for salvation, so that, receiving grace and mercy through your prayers to the Lord our God, we may glorify the Source of all good things and the Giver of gifts, the one God glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.