THE LIFE OF SAINT VARSONOPHIUS, BISHOP OF TVER #
(Commemoration: April 11/24)
Saint Varsonophius, Bishop of Tver and Wonderworker of Kazan, was born around the year 1495 in the city of Serpukhov, into the family of a priest. At baptism, the infant was given the name Ioann (John), although some sources name him Vasiliy (Basil). Gifted with diligence and a quick mind, the boy easily learned to read and write, mastered the Psalter, and acquired such skill in church singing that he could not only read and sing himself, but also assist others in doing so.
In 1512, the Crimean Tatars, led by Akhmat Giray and Burnat Giray, launched a campaign against Ryazan. Though they failed to take the city, they laid waste to the banks of the Oka River in a swift and unexpected raid. Among the many captives taken was Ioann, who was then seventeen years old. The condition of captivity was bitter, but prayer and meditation eased his sorrow and brought to his heart a consolation greater than he had known in his parental home. His love for God grew, along with his devotion to His holy will.
In this spiritual disposition, the young Ioann served his unbelieving masters with great diligence, learning to practice unquestioning obedience, patience, and meekness. Fasting, at first involuntary, became an act of voluntary virtue. The exhausting labors of a slave consumed all his daylight hours, and only the night he reserved for prayer, which had become the need of his soul. Trusting in the Lord, the future saint prayed and sang psalms that came to his memory, living like a novice in a monastery—unnoticed, he acquired habits of obedience, gentleness, and endurance. He slept very little, hardly touched food, distinguished himself by zeal and meekness, labored without complaint, and so won the hearts of even the hardened unbelievers. They came, albeit reluctantly, to acknowledge his worth and began to treat him more gently and mercifully than others.
Gradually, thanks to his exceptional abilities, he acquired fluency in spoken Tatar, and after two years could not only speak it well but also write in the language. His captivity lasted for three years. With great difficulty, his father Vasiliy, a priest, gathered the needed sum to ransom his son Ioann from Tatar slavery.
Blessed Ioann returned home, but his heart had already grown cold to the fleeting joys and pleasures of this world. According to the firm resolve that had taken shape in his soul during captivity, he went to Moscow and entered the Andronikov Monastery of the Savior, where he took monastic tonsure and made vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty. The three years of captivity had served as his trial of obedience. Renouncing the world, a monk dies to it, and so a new name is given—death to the world is birth into the angelic life. The newly tonsured monk was named Varsonophius.
Through a strict and God-pleasing life, Monk Varsonophius advanced in the virtues and in prayer. Saint Acacius, Bishop of Tver (1522–1567)—the younger brother of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk and himself a monk of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery—often visited the Andronikov Monastery. A good and pious archpastor, Saint Acacius was also gifted by God with the grace of foresight. He repeatedly foretold to the venerable Varsonophius (then still a hierodeacon, as Varsonophius himself later recalled) that he would one day be his successor on the episcopal see of Tver.
News of the virtuous and pious life of the venerable Varsonophius reached Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, who appointed him abbot of the Nikolo-Peshnosha Monastery of Methodius, founded in 1361 by the disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the venerable Methodius. The monastery lay in the deep forest, 25 versts from Dmitrov, on the right bank of the Yakhroma River, at the confluence with the Peshnosha stream. In earlier times, this monastery was known as “Nikola-on-the-Peshnosha.”
In 1553, Tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the Peshnosha Monastery with his family during a pilgrimage to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, offering thanks for his miraculous deliverance from death. There, he took note of this seasoned guide of the monastic life, who had suffered captivity and was knowledgeable in the Tatar language and customs. Thus, when a new diocese was to be established in Kazan in 1555, Tsar Ivan appointed Saint Varsonophius, then abbot of the Peshnosha Monastery and an archimandrite, to travel with Saint Guriy, the first Archbishop of Kazan, to establish monastic life in the newly converted land.
On May 26, 1555, the first hierarchs of Kazan solemnly set out from Moscow. The journey by river—via the Moscow River, the Oka, and the Volga—took two months before reaching Kazan.
On Sunday, July 27, 1555, Saint Guriy arrived in Kazan along with Igumen Varsonophius of the Peshnosha Monastery and Igumen Herman of the Dormition Monastery in Staritsa. They were met with crosses and banners at the Kazan Cathedral of the Annunciation by the local clergy and populace. With Saint Varsonophius came monks from Peshnosha who had been tonsured there: Tikhon, Feodorite, Job, Andronik, and Sylvester, as well as Simeon, a monk from the Andronikov Monastery.
Already in the following year, 1556, the venerable Varsonophius fulfilled the commission entrusted to him by establishing the Monastery of the Transfiguration within the Kazan Kremlin. He consecrated the first stone heated church in the monastery, dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Warrior, and later the main church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In the monastery’s Ustav (Rule), written by Archimandrite Varsonophius himself, he humbly refers to himself in the subscription as “the most sinful monk, once abbot at Peshnosha.” Unknown to others, he continued to wear verigi (iron chains) beneath his clothing to mortify the flesh.
The monastery soon became the center of spiritual life in the former Tatar capital. Within a few years, the number of monks reached one hundred. At the will of Saint Guriy—towards whom he maintained full obedience and filial love—Saint Varsonophius zealously labored for the conversion of Muslims to the Christian faith. His command of the Tatar language enabled close contact with the Tatars, and his deep understanding of Islamic doctrine, coupled with a penetrating mind, made his refutations of Islam compelling and unanswerable. His skill in healing attracted the sick of every kind to him, and since illness softens the soul toward what is good, it thereby prepared them to receive the teachings of Christ.
On December 2, 1563, Saint Varsonophius tonsured Saint Guriy into the Great Schema, and on December 4, he buried his closest friend and mentor, Archbishop Guriy of Kazan. Upon the death of Bishop Acacius of Tver (†1567), Metropolitan Philip of Moscow summoned Saint Varsonophius to the capital and consecrated him as Bishop of Tver.
Saint Varsonophius was a true beacon of light to his flock, showing them the path of salvation not only with words but with his entire life. Despite the high office he held, he remained the same humble ascetic he had been in the Peshnosha Monastery and in Kazan. He spent his nights in prayer, his days in labor and pastoral care; even in moments of rest, he would sew monastic hoods (klobuks) and gift them to monks and bishops. With constant prayer, he earnestly healed both the bodily and spiritual afflictions of those who came to him.
The time in which God appointed him to shepherd the flock of Tver was one of great hardship. It was the beginning of a period of severe trials for Russia: Tsar Ivan the Terrible, once a wise and pious ruler, became a terror and scourge to his people through the implementation of the infamous Oprichnina. Since Tver was not part of the Oprichnina, it received no favor from the Tsar. Saint Varsonophius looked with horror and sorrow upon the fate of his friend Herman, Archbishop of Kazan, once held in esteem by the Tsar. Herman was summoned to Moscow to be made Metropolitan, but when he humbly reminded the Tsar that he would answer at God’s Judgment for his cruelties, he was exiled and died in captivity.
Many dreadful events passed before the eyes of Saint Varsonophius during the four years of his episcopal service. Feeling the weakness of old age, he retired in 1571 to the monastery he had founded in Kazan. He spent five years there in the Monastery of the Transfiguration, in prayer and seclusion, where he took the Great Schema. When he was too frail to walk to church, his loving disciples helped him attend the divine services, knowing his deep love for the liturgy.
Saint Varsonophius reposed on April 11, 1576, and was buried in the Monastery of the Transfiguration by Archbishop Tikhon of Kazan. In 1595, with the blessing of Patriarch Job (1588–1607), a new church was built in the monastery in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. During construction, the relics of Saints Guriy and Varsonophius were uncovered. The account of this discovery was written by an eyewitness, Saint Hermogenes (later Patriarch of Moscow), who was then Archbishop of Kazan:
“When, on October 4, we reached the tombs of the holy fathers, the brethren came to inform me, the unworthy one. Having offered the bloodless sacrifice to the Lord God with the whole sacred assembly and completed the memorial service, we proceeded to the monastery. Having come to the place, we venerated the graves of the venerable fathers Guriy and Varsonophius. When we opened the tomb, we beheld something wholly unexpected: the reliquary of the saint was full of fragrant myrrh, and the relics of Saint Guriy floated like a sponge upon the surface of the myrrh; not a single part of his body was submerged. God had bestowed incorruption upon his holy and much-suffering body, as all could see even now… I, the unworthy one, touched the holy body with my sinful hand, felt the vestments in which he was buried, and they were extremely strong. I tried with force to tear his mantle and other burial garments, and they were stronger than new cloth. At his head lay a knitted Greek klobuk, which, according to the disciples of Saint Varsonophius, had been made by Varsonophius himself for Guriy and, after Guriy’s repose, was placed unfinished in the tomb at his head. We examined this klobuk together and, taking a thread from it, we could scarcely tear it, for it was stronger than new fabric. We transferred the fragrant myrrh into a new vessel, and Orthodox Christians, using it, received constant healings. We then opened Varsonophius’ reliquary and saw that his relics too were graced by incorruption, which we confirmed by transferring the holy and wonderworking relics of both saints with our own hands, along with Archimandrite Arsenius, from their tombs into new reliquaries. Marveling at the ineffable mercy of God, we sang burial hymns over the venerable fathers with tears and reverence, and set them above ground, that all who come may see and glorify God in wonder.”
In the “Iconographic Originals” (Иконописный подлинник), a description of the saint’s appearance is preserved:
“Face with slight indentation, beard like that of Guriy (whose beard was like that of Basil of Caesarea), parted at the end, wearing episcopal vestments, omophorion, and Gospel book.”
The Life of Saints Guriy and Varsonophius was written by the Holy Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes.