Ascended by Fire: The Venerable Martyr Epiphaniy of Solovki
Among the fellow prisoners and co-sufferers of Archpriest Avvakum was this humble and guileless monk Epiphaniy. He was born in a certain village in the 1610s or 1620s. From childhood he was greatly devoted to fasting and prayer, and he loved reading holy books. In 1638, having become an orphan, he moved to a certain large city (most likely Moscow), and later, desiring the monastic struggle, he set off for the Solovetsky Monastery. Arriving at the glorious monastery of the Venerable Zosima and Savvatiy, he became a novice in 1645, and seven years later the venerable archimandrite Ilya tonsured him into monasticism, giving him the name Epiphaniy, which means “manifested.” And indeed, God manifested him as one of His holy favorites, granting him a miraculous end…
Seeing the diligence and God-fearing nature of the monk Epiphaniy, the monastery authorities wished to ordain him to the holy priesthood, but out of great humility he refused.
The monk Epiphaniy’s father and guide in the Gospel was the elder Martiriy, under whom Arseniy the Greek — a man who had repeatedly changed his faith and even renounced Christianity, considered an astrologer and sorcerer — had previously been “under correction.” It was Arseniy the Greek who became the support of Patriarch Nikon in carrying out the unfortunate reform: Nikon not only justified the apostate but even appointed him, a man ignorant of the Slavonic language, to direct the Moscow Printing Yard and make changes to the liturgical books. “Correct it, Arseniy, somehow — just not the old way!” was the command given by the “great sovereign patriarch Nikon.” And so the new “correctors” acted: instead of “yunoshi” (youths) they put “deti” (children), instead of “deti” they wrote “yunoshi,” they changed stresses in words, rearranged words, replaced them with synonyms, altered verb forms, and so on. They introduced more substantial, even meaningful distortions. They even changed the Orthodox Creed and the description of the Orthodox sign of the cross. They ordered the “Alleluia” to be sung four times in the Latin manner, contrary to the prohibition of the ancient holy fathers. They abolished many prostrations during the service… In short, not a single liturgical book, not a single rite, not even a single psalm remained without unnecessary or even blasphemous-sounding changes. The old, unaltered books were declared heretical and subject to removal from the churches.
It was precisely such “newly corrected” books that were sent from Moscow to Solovki in October 1657. The holy archimandrite Ilya did not serve according to them but ordered the literate elders first to study them and compare them with the ancient handwritten books in the monastery’s rich library. The elders’ verdict was this: the texts were not corrected but corrupted, and there was no need to replace the old books.
Disputes and strife began in the monastery. Some defenders of Nikon’s innovations appeared and began to rebel against the abbot. Grieved by these events, the monk Epiphaniy decided to go “into the desert” to live in silence there. He did this at the turn of 1657–1658, receiving a blessing for this new struggle from his mentor, the elder Martiriy. With him he took books, tools for carving (the monk practiced making wooden crosses, both pectoral and processional, as his handicraft), a copper-cast icon of the God-bearer, a censer, and everything necessary for the solitary life of a hermit. Father Epiphaniy’s path led to the Andom skete of the Venerable Evfrosin of Kurzha, located on an island in Kurzha Lake at the source of the Andoma River (now Vologda region). After living about a year with the venerable mentor, Epiphaniy asked for a blessing to intensify his struggle in the “farther desert” and went to Vidansky Island on the Suna River. In the Sunaretsky Trinity skete he lived seven years under the Venerable Father Kirill of Sunaretsky.
Throughout his entire monastic life, the holy Epiphaniy was repeatedly subjected to various attacks from the devil: sometimes ants tormented his flesh for many months, sometimes his cell burned down for no apparent reason, and other terrors came. He called upon the Lord Jesus and His Most Pure Mother for help; the copper icon of Her remained undamaged by the fire. The God-bearer Herself appeared to the venerable one and helped him. After his repose, the Venerable Evfrosin of Kurzha, with whom he had struggled together in the Andom skete, appeared to him in a vision. He was also granted a visit from the holy martyr-bishop Philip, the murdered Metropolitan of Moscow, whose relics were discovered in the Solovetsky Monastery in the presence of Father Epiphaniy.
In 1659 the recently deceased Solovetsky archimandrite Ilya also appeared to Father Epiphaniy and commanded him to write a work for Tsar Alexis, to demonstrate the wrongness of the church innovations and to call for a return “to the true Christian faith, the old one.” The elder set to work: he made excerpts from the Gospel, the Apostle, church canons, and other holy books that showed the complete untenability of Nikon’s church reform. Father Epiphaniy put much labor into compiling this petition-book, personally — despite weak eyesight — copying the rough drafts cleanly. The book was approved by the Venerable Kirill of Sunaretsky and the monk Varlaam, who lived nearby “in the desert.” They blessed the elder to go “to Moscow” and present his work to the tsar.
On the way to the capital, Father Epiphaniy decided to visit the Venerable Korniliy of Vyg, so that he too might approve his composition. Korniliy suggested that he stay with him for a time to refine the book. This stop lasted two years: at first they lived in a stone cave on the Vodla River, and later in a cell at Kyatkozero. Here the monk also wrote an autobiographical note—a draft of his future “Life.” This note became the preface to the petition.
Father Epiphaniy proposed to the elder Korniliy that they go “to Moscow” together to suffer “for the sake of piety,” but Korniliy received a divine notification to remain in the desert. Then the monk Epiphaniy resolved to fast and pray for six weeks in order to receive some “notification” from God; having received it, he joyfully set out for the suffering that lay ahead, carefully carrying with him his precious literary labor.
Arriving in the capital at the end of 1666, he became acquainted with the noblewoman Feodosia Prokofievna Morozova (the future venerable martyr Theodora) and the fool-for-Christ monk Abraham (the future venerable martyr) who lived in her house; the latter effectively led the ancient Orthodox Christian community in Moscow.
In the summer of 1667, Father Epiphaniy publicly presented his petition to the tsar on the square. The tsar passed it to the hierarchs assembled at the Great Moscow Council, which had been convened to curse the “old faith.” The hierarchs ordered the arrest of the “rebel,” and the monk Epiphaniy was seized. On July 17, the Nikonian hierarchs tried with exhortations and threats to incline the unyielding monk to “submission” to their heresy, but in vain, and he was cast back into prison. On August 5—a new unsuccessful attempt… On August 26, 1667, the apostate hierarchs sentenced Archpriest Avvakum, the monk Epiphaniy, the Romanov priest Lazar, and the Simbirsk priest Nikifor to lifelong exile in the far north, to the Pustozersk stockade. The next day, on Bolotnaya Square, Fathers Lazar and Epiphaniy were brought out and had their tongues cut out so they could no longer preach the “old faith.” Avvakum was left with his tongue, through the intercession of the tsaritsa…
The journey to Pustozersk was long and arduous. Only on December 12 did the prisoners arrive at the place of their prolonged suffering and future fiery execution. Father Nikifor was not brought there due to his death en route, but on April 2, 1668, the deacon Theodore of the Moscow Annunciation Cathedral was delivered, also with his tongue cut out.
Father Epiphaniy grieved greatly over the loss of his tongue, and through his prayers a miracle occurred: the tongue grew back in his mouth. The saint glorified God for this sign.
In strict confinement, the elder found consolation in prayer and handicraft. Over his life he made up to 600 wooden crosses, large and small. And when an eye ailment prevented him from continuing his craft, a wondrous visitor appeared to him with materials, tools, and an order for a large cross. Epiphaniy began to refuse, but the visitor insisted. And suddenly his sight returned to the sufferer!
Here, in the earthen prison, the monk became the spiritual father (hearing thoughts, according to the monastic custom) of Archpriest Avvakum and “compelled” him to write his autobiographical “Life.” The archpriest did not remain in debt: he compelled the elder himself to compose his own life story. These two “Lives” are precious testimonies to that sorrowful time and to the struggle of the Christian Old Believers.
The monk Epiphaniy, together with Archpriest Avvakum, wrote letters and books and secretly sent them to the Old Believers in Moscow and other places in Russia, hidden in little boxes that Father Epiphaniy made in the axe-handles of the musketeers guarding the holy sufferers—who secretly sympathized with them.
When the authorities learned of these letters, they intensified the regime for the Pustozersk prisoners. On April 14, 1670, by tsarist decree, the streltsy half-captain Ivan Elagin arrived at the stockade and again cut out the regrown tongues of the three sufferers (except Avvakum), and also maimed their right hands, cutting off either the whole hand (for Deacon Theodore) or the fingers. The sufferers were separated from one another and placed in earthen pit-prisons, where in inhuman conditions, exhausted by hunger and cold, they continued their struggle for the faith of Christ.
After the second execution, Father Epiphaniy grew faint in spirit and even wished that all the blood might flow out of his body through the wounds so as to accept death. But by God’s providence this did not happen, and the wounds healed extraordinarily quickly. And in a dream he had a vision of the Most Holy God-bearer, who showed him his two cut-out tongues floating in the air—the first and the second—and commanded him to choose one of them. He chose and placed it in his mouth, and awoke. And from then on his tongue began to grow back little by little, reaching up to his teeth again. And once more the monk began to glorify God aloud…
Tsar Alexis died. His successor Theodore, at the instigation of the new-rite clergy, gave the order to burn the four Pustozersk confessors in a wooden frame. In the desolate, treeless Pustozersk there were no spare logs, so some buildings had to be torn down to provide wood for the martyrs’ burning… The saints were led out to execution on April 14, 1682, on Great and Holy Friday—the day when the innocent Jesus Christ Himself accepted execution. The sufferers went joyfully to meet the Lord. Here is how a contemporary, recording the account of eyewitnesses, describes the events: “When they placed Father Epiphaniy and with him his three co-sufferers—Archpriest Avvakum, Priest Lazar, and Deacon Theodore—into one wooden frame… and covered the entire frame with pitch and birch bark and straw and pitch, and set it ablaze with fire. They all sang in unison within the frame: ‘Mistress, accept the prayer of Thy servants.’ The fire roared greatly and blazed up with a great flame into the air; they stood in the flame and finished singing that verse to the end, and bowed to the ground, and the flame enveloped them. All the people of the Pustozersk settlement standing around, and the soldiers, and certain God-loving men saw from the frame and from the flame—Father Monk Epiphaniy was lifted up into the air, as if borne by some divine power, upward to heaven, and became invisible. They pointed to one another, and some saw it while others did not. And when the frame burned down and the flame subsided, they found the bodies of the three sufferers unburned, only scorched—Archpriest Avvakum, Priest Lazar, and Deacon Theodore—and parts of their vestments were not consumed; but they found neither the body of Father Epiphaniy nor anything from his vestments, and they marveled at this. And those who had seen this most glorious miracle—of Father Epiphaniy being lifted up from the frame and flame into the air toward heaven—told of their vision, and they began to marvel at this most glorious mercy of God and glorified God, wondrous in His miracles, for even in these last times God glorifies and strengthens the ancient church piety. But some doubted, and after a little time had passed, to those who had not seen such a most glorious miracle and were doubting, and who were once walking along the road and conversing about this among themselves, the wondrous Father Epiphaniy appeared to them as if alive, traveling the road, and he made the Jesus Prayer and said to them: ‘Peace be unto you, children! Do not doubt concerning me; I did not burn in the frame, but I am alive, as it pleased our Master the Lord Jesus Christ, and tell this to your brethren, that they may not doubt concerning me, but magnify and glorify the Lord God, wondrous in His miracles, and be strengthened in ancient church piety.’ And having spoken, having made the Jesus Prayer, and given them peace, he became invisible. They rejoiced and glorified God, wondrous in His miracles…”
The memory of this great venerable martyr is celebrated on April 14 according to the church calendar (April 27 according to the civil calendar), together with his Pustozersk co-sufferers, on the day of their fiery end.
Troparion to the Holy Venerable Martyr Epiphaniy of Solovki, Tone 6 Faster and sufferer and wonderworker Epiphaniy, / who wast ascended by fiery flame unto the throne of the Lord, / ever pray to Him for us, / that we may be delivered from misfortunes and the assaults of the enemy, / and that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion, Tone 8 Having acquired a peaceful spirit, O venerable one, / thou wast ascended to the supramundane habitations, O Epiphaniy, / unto Christ God the Giver of myrrh; / ever pray to Him, O passion-bearer, / to grant peace to the world / and to save our souls.
Ikos In truth thou hast shown thyself to be aptly named, O our venerable father Epiphaniy, / for thou wast manifested by God as a wonderworker and martyr, / having acquired purity of soul and body / through fasting, prayer, and abstinence, / and lying upon the earth, and all-night vigils, / love of truth and almsgiving, / humility of mind and meekness of character; / an angel on earth thou didst appear, / a heavenly man. / Now standing before the throne of Christ God, / ever pray to Him / to grant peace to the world / and to save our souls.
-Written by Belokrinitsa priest Vadim Korovin