Blessed Nicholas (Salos) of Pskov the Fool-For-Christ
Blessed Nicholas of Pskov lived the life of a holy fool for more than three decades. Long before his repose, he acquired the grace of the Holy Spirit and was granted the gifts of wonderworking and of prophecy. During his lifetime, the residents of Pskov called him Mikula [Mikola, Nikola] the Fool, and revered him as a Saint, even calling him Saint Mikula.
In February 1570, after a devastating campaign against Novgorod, Tsar Ivan the Terrible decided to attack Pskov, suspecting the inhabitants of treason. As the Pskov Chronicle relates, “the Tsar came ... with great ferocity, like a roaring lion,1 wanting to tear innocent people apart, and to shed much blood.”
On the first Saturday of Great Lent, the whole city prayed to be delivered from the Tsar’s wrath. Hearing the bell ring for Matins in Pskov, the Tsar’s heart was softened when he read the inscription on the XV century wonderworking Liubyatov Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God (March 19) in the Monastery of Saint Nicholas (the Tsar’s army was at the time). “Be merciful,” he told his soldiers. “Blunt your swords upon the stones, and let there be an end to killing.”
All the inhabitants of Pskov came out upon the streets, and each family knelt at the doors of their houses, holding bread and salt to meet the Tsar. On one of the streets Blessed Nicholas ran toward the Tsar astride a stick as if he were riding a horse, and cried out: “Ivanushko, Ivanushko, eat our bread and salt, but not the blood of Christians."
The Tsar commanded that the holy fool be apprehended, but he disappeared.
Though he had forbidden his men to kill, Ivan still intended to sack the city. The Tsar attended a Moleben at Holy Trinity Cathedral, where he venerated the relics of the right-believing Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel (February 11). He also expressed his wish to receive the blessing of the holy fool Nicholas. The Saint taught the Tsar “by many terrible sayings,” to stop the killing and not to plunder God's holy churches.
He prophesied that when the Tsar left Pskov he would not have a horse to ride. "Leave us, you passer-by," the blessed one said in a stern voice, "go quickly from us. If you hesitate, there will be nothing here for you to flee on."
Tsar Ivan did not listen to him, and he ordered his men to remove the bell from Holy Trinity Cathedral. Then, just as the Saint had predicted, the Tsar’s favorite horse fell dead.
Blessed Nicholas invited the Tsar to visit his cell under the bell tower. When the Tsar arrived at the Saint's cell Nicholas said, “Come in and accept a drink of water from us, there is no reason why you should shun it.” Then the holy fool offered the Tsar a piece of raw meat.
“I am a Christian and I do not eat meat during Lent," Ivan objected.
"But you drink human blood,” Nicholas replied.
Frightened by the fulfillment of the Saint's prophecy and denounced for his wicked deeds, Ivan ordered a stop to the looting and fled from the city. The Oprichniki, witnessing this, wrote: “The mighty tyrant ... departed beaten and shamed, driven off as though by an enemy. Thus did a worthless beggar terrify and drive off the Tsar with his multitude of a thousand soldiers.”
Blessed Nicholas fell asleep in the Lord on February 28, 1576 and was buried at Holy Trinity Cathedral in the city he had saved. Such honors were granted only to the Pskov Princes, and later on, to Hierarchs.
The local veneration of the Saint began five years after his death. In the year 1581, when Pskov was besieged by the soldiers of the Polish king Stephen Bathory, the Mother of God appeared to the blacksmith Dorotheos, together with a number of Pskov Saints, praying for the city. Among these was Blessed Nicholas, according to an account concerning the Pskov-Protection Icon of the Mother of God (October 1).
At Holy Trinity cathedral the relics of Blessed Nicholas of Pskov are still venerated, for “by feigning foolishness, he was shown as a glorified citizen of the Heavenly Jerusalem" (Troparion). He also “turned the Tsar’s power from wrath to mercy" (Kontakion).
1 I Peter 5:8