The great Tver Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich had a faithful servant, a youth named Gregory. The prince trusted him in everything, even instructing him to go to his villages and collect tribute. It happened once that servant was in the Volga village of Edimonov, which was fourteen miles from Tver, and he stopped at the house of the local sexton Athanasius. The owner, on the other hand, had a daughter, Ksenia, of an indescribable beauty and disposition of the most affable and pious. From an early age, the girl loved to listen to the Holy Scripture, comprehending it not only with her mind, but also with her heart.
Gregory saw the girl and was stupefied: such beauty! Fell in love at first sight and decided to get married. But how to persuade the prince, how to get his consent? But he didn’t hide from the sexton, told about his love. At first, the sexton began to grow up and did not believe: “You serve such a noble prince, and we are simple and poor people.” But he told his wife and daughter, and the daughter says: "Rely on everything according to the will of God, do as he asks, for it is not he who asks, but the Lord wants it."
Well, we got it right - to be married in that village and get married young in the church of Dimitry of Solunsky.
Having finished business, Gregory hurried to Tver. He will remember the girl - and he has such an easy and joyful soul! And the girl, as he left, reassures her parents: “Do not be surprised! He thinks so, and God will do everything in his own way.Not this is destined to become my husband, but another. To whom God will give me. ” Amazed at her speeches, but did not understand them.
Gregory, having waited for a convenient moment, fell to the prince’s feet, talked about his agreement and begged to give his consent. At first, the Grand Duke discouraged him: “If you’ve decided to get married, get married, but choose a pair of boyar children for yourself. If you take the poor one, you will be ashamed of your parents, boyars, and friends: you will hate everyone. Yes, and I will be ashamed of you! ” But the lad did not listen to anything, but only prayed to the prince.
Finally, the prince gave his consent, ordered the groom to prepare a barge - Edimonovo stood on the Volga, - he himself promised to keep up with the wedding day, having arrived along the shore, and went hunting. And before that, he had a dream at night, as if he were on a hunt, and then he let his beloved falcon go, and he caught him a dove of unusual beauty. The prince thought for a long time what this dream means (and there was Prince Yaroslav still unmarried, only twenty years old).
The lad swam down the river, landed on the shore and sent messengers to the village to say so in a hurry. The damsel replied to the messengers that everything was not ready yet; she herself would send the message. And he says to his own: "My matchmaker has arrived, and the groom is amusing himself in the field."
At night, the prince again sees the same dream, but he does not know how to understand it. The lad, seeing that time is passing, rushes everyone. The damsel to the lad says: “Take your time, I will still have an uninvited guest, better than those invited!”
The prince was hunting nearby, but he didn’t visit Edimonovo and did not know the place. And then he sees a flock of swans on the Volga, launched hawks and falcons on them. Many swans were caught, and the beloved falcon began to play and flew to the village. The prince is behind him.The falcon sat on the church and cleans feathers. The prince asks what village is and whose is it? They answer him - Yaroslav Yaroslavich, that is, that is, but he was never here and they will not recognize him: in hunting clothes, in road dust. They think he knows horses, he came to the groom.
So the people are already going to go to church, and the girl suddenly says: "Meet my betrothed." Let's go, look, and this is the prince! All forgiveness is requested that they have not been met, and the girl says to the lad: “Get up, give your place to the prince. He is my fiance, and you were a matchmaker! ” The Grand Duke looked at her and measured - as if the rays from her face shine, she is so beautiful! And the prince said to the lad: “Go, look for another bride, and I take this one.”
The prince took the damsel by the hand and led to the church and on the same day got married, as expected. And the prince had great joy, and he commanded everyone to be treated all night, even until the morning. And when the prince left the church, his beloved falcon flew into his voice from the dome of the church and sat on his right hand, looks around both the prince and the princess, as if having fun.
The lad did not drink, did not eat, and at night, after praying, he took off everything princely and put on the simple and decrepit dress that he bought from the peasant, and secretly from all went into the woods, into the most deserted thickets where his eyes look.
The next morning they grabbed, but he was gone. To search. They got around everything - they just found the dress removed. The prince especially ordered him to go along the river and look at the wells - he was afraid that he would not betray himself the murderer: "I am guilty of his death." The princess objected: “God pleased this way. It wasn’t human desire that happened, that you, the Grand Duke, would come to our poverty and take me. ”
Then the young returned to Tver, they were joyfully greeted by all the people, "from small to large," and the feasting went on for another three days.
And the lad of God's providence came to the river Tvertsa, in a remote forest place, and put a hut there. But once people came upon his home, they began to find out who he was, where from, and who had told him to settle here. The lad did not answer, and when they left, he set off to look for a new place, in an even deeper forest, asking for visions from the Virgin.
And once in a dream he sees a clean field and the light shines. He woke up and thought about the vision for a long time. And that very night the Most Holy One appeared to him in a dream and ordered the church to be built in the name of the Assumption and indicated the place: “Go and do not be afraid, the prince will help you. And when you build a monastery, you will live quite a bit and go to heaven. ”
The boy wondered how to fulfill the command. In these thoughts and caught him wading through the thicket catchers. They recognized Gregory and were glad that, having lived in the wild forest for more than three years, he was found alive and healthy. They persuaded him to go to the prince, who was also happy, kissed Gregory and wept. The prince immediately ordered him to bring his former clothes, but the lad objected: “this is not what I came for”, and told everything about his life and about his visions.
And the prince gave him people, cleared that place, brought the craftsmen and set up a church. And when the church was consecrated in the name of the Assumption of the Virgin, there were a prince, a princess, and the entire princely court. And they called that place the Mount of Monastery and glorified the Lord and His Most Holy Mother. And the next day the lad was tonsured to the monastic rank and named Guriy.He lived a little after the tonsure, and they buried him there. That monastery exists to this day.
