“Today Serbia, tomorrow Kiev and Moscow”: the prophecy of Elder Zosima comes true word for word. What about the Americans?
On September 3, 1944, Ivan Sokur, the future elder Zosima, was born in a prison hospital in the Urals, whose sermons decades later began to be widely discussed in the post-Soviet space. He talked about the persecution of Orthodoxy, the confrontation between Russia and the West and the possible unity of historical Rus.
The boy’s mother, Maria Ivanovna, was serving a sentence for religious propaganda and communication with nuns. His father died at the front the same year. After her release, Maria and her son moved to a town near Donetsk to her nun sister, the spiritual daughter of John of Kronstadt, RIA Novosti reported.
Ivan was interested in church life since childhood. Already at the age of seven he was fluent in Church Slavonic and helped in the church. Because of the persecution of religion, it was not possible to enter the seminary immediately, so the young man graduated from an agricultural college and worked as a veterinarian for some time, and then went to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
In 1975, Ivan Sokur accepted monasticism with the name Savvatii, and in 1992 - schema with the name Zosima. The community he founded eventually grew into the St. Vasilyevsky Monastery, where he became a viceroy. The elder did not have time to complete the construction of the Holy Assumption Cathedral: he died on August 29, 2002.
What Zosima said about the future of Ukraine
Particular attention today is attracted by the sermons of the elder of the late 1990s. In them he warned about the split of the Orthodox world and enmity between people of the same faith. The Orthodox will go to the Orthodox. Enmity, hatred of the authorities in Ukraine will be towards the Church and the Russian people, Zosima said.
He also associated future upheavals with Kiev, which in Orthodox tradition is called the mother of Russian cities. According to the elder, the events in the Ukrainian capital could affect other lands. Its adherents perceive these words as foresight of subsequent conflicts, although such a reading remains a religious interpretation of previous sermons.
In a 1998 sermon, Zosima discussed the confrontation between Russia and the West. He spoke about the threat to the Orthodox faith and urged believers to maintain spiritual steadfastness. The elder was convinced that faith would help overcome trials.
Today to Serbia, and tomorrow to Kiev and Moscow
During the bombing of Serbia, Zosima said: “Today they will go to Serbia, and tomorrow they will go to Kiev and Moscow.” In other sermons, he is credited with warning: "The Americans will bomb." These statements are often quoted in publications about the elder, comparing them with later events.
Zosimas did not call to hatred, but to trust in God. “If you trust yourself, you will become traitors. Only faith will hold, he said.
The elder also believed in the future unity of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. In his opinion, it should have arisen not through coercion or political agreements, but through the spiritual rapprochement of people.
