Valentina Feodorovna Sulkovskaya was born on April 21, 1888 in a hereditary priest's family in the village of Koski, near Stankovo, where everyone now knows how to get to the grave of Valentina Minsk.
Life test
She grew up in a Belarusian village, located in a picturesque place near the river, in a spiritual prayer atmosphere with three more sisters.
They were brought up as future mothers, taught prayers, obedience, housekeeping. But the cruel time, crumbling the fate of millions of people, did not go around neither Valentina Feodorovna, nor her family.
Her husband was exiled; he died in the camp. She lost almost all relatives and friends, since most of them belonged to the clergy, were exiled or executed. Health, destroyed by a difficult life, full of trials and cruel losses, completely left her, she fell ill.
Until 1937, she lived with her mother Sophia. Priests often came to their house for secret worship. Even then, the villagers considered her a saint. Soon, in 1939, the last active church was closed in Minsk.
Spiritual formation
In this difficult time for believers, the solitude of sick Valentina made it possible to pray, read akathists, and talk about God when visiting. She possessed the gift of insight: she saw the past, the future, what is happening with the soul of man. Many left healed from her, not only physically, but also spiritually.
To stop the pilgrimage to her, which had already become mass by the 50s, the authorities tried to send her to a psychiatric hospital, as was done then with believers and clergy. They failed to fulfill their plan, but many participants came out of this story with faith in God.
Long before the glorification of Valentina Minsky (many people are interested in getting to the grave), people coming from far away turned to her for heavenly help. The church collects testimonies when people received healings, intercessions when handling prayers. On these grounds, the deceased is ranked among the saints. It also matters that Valentine was a confessor of faith.
Serving God and people
Valentina's face was enlightened, open, and she never said unnecessary words. She was friends with singers from neighboring villages, they visited her, sang songs and psalms. At first, she was known only to the inhabitants of her village, who went to her with any misfortune.
When the war began, women reached out to her brothers, sons, and husbands, who were leading to the front. They wanted to know at least something about them: whether they were alive, whether they would return. There were more and more people, and now the war was over, and there were more and more questions about the fate of people who did not return. They set up shops in the house and on the street. Visitors walked around the clock.
A large number of testimonies have been preserved telling about how people were healed after her prayers, how she cast out demons. And when she died, how to get to the grave of Valentina Minsky they began to ask to ask her for help there, pray, and take a handful of land with her.
She did not accept everyone. If someone came for the sake of curiosity or without faith in God, but simply wanted her to be fortunate, such people were wrapped away from the yard.
Gifts of Valentina Feodorovna
She was generous and non-possessive. I treated guests with tea with crackers, the sick people to whom she gave the hospitals were healed, no one left empty-handed.
Mother made flowers for gifts, wove ribbons with her fingers, distributed them to people, as if recalling wearing crosses. I poured water from the spring into a large white jug, mixed it with prosphora and jam, prayed for a long time, overshadowed it with my wooden cross, and then distributed it to everyone in the line. In Belarus, this dish is called the canon, which is made to commemorate the dead.
Mother made it every day, starting in the morning, covering it with a dilapidated church air. Of course, mother did not serve the Liturgy, but, of course, she asked God for help and enlightenment for everyone who tastes this canon. Angels appeared to her so clearly that even some visitors saw them.
Valentina also rewrote church books that remained from her father-priest, blessed pilgrims for this work, and taught how to pray. “I will glorify those who glorify me,” the Bible says. (1 Samuel 2:30.)
Mother died on February 6, 1966, on the day of remembrance of Ksenia the Blessed, who had been Valentina before, predicted to her that she would become blessed. At the funeral in the village of Krysovo, Minsk Region, there were many people, but the priests could not even put on the vestments, it was so dangerous to openly practice the faith at that time.
Since then, the grave of Valentina Minsk has become a place of pilgrimage, which is never empty. Exactly 40 years later, worship took place. This is a great joy for all Orthodox who can appeal to her as a saint.
How to get to the grave?
How to get by car to the grave of Valentina Minsk from Dzerzhinsk? Three km after the overpass near the villages of Tsvetkovo-Kushkevichi, the cemetery will be on the left side. It is always crowded, prayers, processions are held, pilgrims come by bus.
From Minsk, you need to drive to the cemetery one and a half kilometers after the overpass over the highway with the Stankovo sign. This is the Brest-Moscow highway M1 / E30, there is a special signpost on it, showing how to get to the grave of Valentina Minsk.
By train from Minsk in the Brest direction you need to get to the station "Pyatigorye" from the station. m. "Institute of Culture". There, local residents will tell you how to get to the grave of St. Valentine of Minsk.
For those who have mobile phones, they can use the GPS coordinates 53.678755, 27.256648.
If you do not know how to get to the grave of Valentina Minsky, then for the first time you can go any Sunday with pilgrims from the Holy Spirit Cathedral at around 8.50-9.00. The group travels by train, and then goes on a religious procession for about 30 minutes.