The Fool-for-Christ Monk-Martyr: Venerable Avraamy, Fool-for-Christ for the Sake of Christ #
This ever-memorable sufferer came from the lands of Nizhny Novgorod and was a disciple and spiritual son of the holy archpriest Avvakum, who wrote of him in his Life:
“Good was dear little Afonasyushko, my spiritual son, in monasticism Avraamy, whom the apostates in Moscow baked in fire, and he was offered like sweet bread unto the Holy Trinity. Before becoming a monk, he wandered barefoot in only a shirt, both in winter and summer… He was most eager to weep: he walked and wept. And whoever spoke with him, his words were soft and smooth, as though he wept…”
From his youth Afanasy loved Christ and resolved to devote himself to the ascetic labor of holy foolishness for Christ’s sake. He feigned madness and wandered through the streets of Moscow in a single shirt, summer and winter, enduring cold and heat, hunger and deprivation. The noblewoman Feodosia Morozova (later the Venerable Martyr Theodora) gave him shelter in her home, which served as a refuge for many of the destitute and a spiritual stronghold for the Old Believers in the Russian capital.
In 1665, desiring monastic life, the saint Afanasy, with the blessing of Archpriest Avvakum, withdrew to the Monastery of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk, where he was tonsured with the name Avraamy. Returning to Moscow in the spring of 1667, he effectively became the leader of the Old Believer community, which had been orphaned after the renewed arrest of Avvakum.
In the home of Lady Morozova, St. Avraamy composed many writings in defense of the ancient Church piety and in denunciation of ecclesiastical innovations. From 1667 to 1669, he wrote the principal work of his life, titled The Christianly-Perilous Shield of the Faith Against the Heretical Host, which included the writings of Archpriest Avvakum, Deacon Feodor Ivanov, and other defenders of Old Orthodoxy, as well as numerous excerpts from ancient ecclesiastical books.
Venerable Avraamy maintained extensive correspondence with persecuted Old Believers, including the confessors imprisoned in Pustozersk, and served as the keeper of a large library of the Old Orthodox Christian community in Moscow.
On February 8, 1670, Father Avraamy was arrested and imprisoned. During the arrest, letters from Archpriest Avvakum and other Old Believer writings were confiscated. He was taken to the Chudov Monastery, where Metropolitan Paul of Krutitsy and Archimandrite Joachim (the future Patriarch of the New Rite) attempted through persuasion and threats to induce him to abandon the old faith. But he remained unshakable. For this, he was subjected to the blasphemous rite of “deposition,” contrary to Church canons, which declare that monastic vows and the monastic rank can under no circumstances be annulled.
While in prison, the saint continued to correspond with Archpriest Avvakum and other Christians.
In 1672, the venerable one wrote a petition to Tsar Alexis “the Most Quiet,” denouncing those who had abandoned the ancient patristic faith. The Tsar, filled with wrath, sentenced the saint to be burned with fire.
The execution was carried out on Bolotnaya Square in the spring of 1672. And thus he, who bore the name of the patriarch Avraamy, passed from the temporal into the eternal and immortal dwellings of Christ our God.
The memory of this saint is commemorated on May 2 according to the Church calendar (May 15 according to the civil calendar).
Tropar to the Venerable Martyr Avraamy — Tone 1
Thou art the praise of monks and the adornment of martyrs, O Father Avraamy. In the monastic rank didst thou please God, and wast counted worthy to receive a martyr’s end. Do thou pray that peace be granted to the world and salvation to our souls.
Kondak — Tone 2, melody: “In prayers thou ceasest not”
Having quenched the flame of the passions with abstinence and prayer, and having been consumed in the flame, thou didst burn up the heretical tares, and didst vanquish the hosts of the adversary, O Avraamy, venerable martyr.
Ikos
In monastic life thou didst strive in holiness and didst denounce delusions; wherefore the heretics delivered thee to imprisonment, torments, and burning with fire. For this cause we glorify thee as an earthly angel and a heavenly man, a boast and adornment of the Holy Church, a guide for monks, a strength for Christians, and a fervent intercessor for all the world, O Avraamy, venerable martyr.