The writer Leskov described a case where one day the bridge broke and Vladyka was forced to get out of the carriage and walk.
Simply put, he walked because his carriage could not cross the bridge. On the other hand, the saint walked, surrounded by a crowd of twenty spiritual and non-spiritual people, among whom two women were especially remarkable. One of these Orthodox Christian women kept spreading a towel in front of the saint, which he stepped on for her pleasure, while the other was even more pious and strove to lie down in front of him on the road - probably so that the saint would walk along it herself, but he this pleasure did not. He himself was a person with a reddish hemorrhoidal face, in which small, angry gray eyes shone, separated by a thick, oaky nose. In the whole figure of the lord there was not only nothing “holy”, but even simply nothing impressive. He only seemed angry and "disappointed." His anxious gaze seemed to ask everyone and everyone: “What is this? Why can I walk.
During the service of Vladyka Varlaam in Penza, the rich Englishman Shkott lived in the city, he was a very noble and kind man, but peculiar. He was very polite, but if he met rudeness and impudence from someone else, he would not let them down to anyone.
One day an Englishman, Shkott, entered an Orthodox church where Vladyka Varlaam had visited.
The royal doors were open, and the words “dog, fool, blockhead” flew freely, which, it seems, mainly fell to the lot of the father rector, but, perhaps, other persons of the consecrated dignity also got in parts. But then, finally, the bishop, having surveyed everything and made all the arrangements in the altar, went out to the solea, near which stood a ktitor and two or three other people who were not spiritual. Here was also the “mother” of the father rector, who came to ask his Eminence for tea.
The Bishop kept sulking and, distributing a blessing to everyone, asked everyone: “whose is this?” or “whose are you?” and distributing these blessings, to a low bow and greetings from the mother, he answered:
Get ready, I'll come.
And then he suddenly and unexpectedly turned to the Englishman, who was humbly standing on the left kliros, and shouted loudly:
And you? Whose are you? Why are you silent, old man?
The Englishman shook his head, which was usually a sign of displeasure with him, and, unexpectedly for everyone, answered:
What are you crying about, old man?
The bishop even swayed and cried out:
How? Thu? are you like that?
What are you?
The noisy bishop seemed to be completely lost and, pointing his finger in the direction of us, shouted to the priest:
Say: who is this rude?
A rude man, but not a fool,” replied Shkott, forestalling the answer of the bewildered priest.
The bishop blushed like a cancer, and, clicking on the stick with his nails, he no longer spoke, but croaked:
Now let me know what it is?
He was informed that this was A. Ya. Shkott, head manager of the estates of counts P<еров>sky. The bishop immediately hushed and asked:
And why is he in such a dress? - but, without waiting for any answer, he went straight to the guest.
The moment was the most decisive, but ended with the bishop holding out his hand to Shkott and saying:
I have great respect for the English nation.
Thanks to.
characteristic nation.
Nothing: good, - answered Schcott.
And what happened here, I humbly ask, let it remain between us.
Let it stay.
Now I ask the priest: to eat together my travel tea.
Why not? - I love tea.
So, Russified?
No, it means I like tea.
The bishop clapped Shkott on the shoulder in a comradely manner and exclaimed once more:
Look, what a characteristic nation! Completely angry!
And you go to your places.
And the Englishman and the bishop, who had spoken compliments to each other, ate tea for a long time and snacked on “from the travel supplies” of the bishop, and his eminence at that time began to slap Shkott on the shoulder more than once, and he, not remaining in debt, for each such caress, in turn, was friendly. slapped him on the chin. Both of them were so pleased with each other that at parting they kissed brotherly, and Shkott squeezed the hand given to him by the bishop so strongly that he frowned and cried out again:
Oh, what a healthy nation!
So it all ended peacefully and pleasantly in a fleeting meeting between this archpastor and an Englishman...Based on the book: "Little Things of Bishop's Life" by Leskov
G. Tambov classical gymnasium, in the city - Kazan Theological Academy with a degree of candidate of theology.
On October 8 of the same year he was tonsured a monk with the name Varlaam, on October 9 he was ordained a hierodeacon by Bishop. Ufa Anthony (Khrapovitsky), October 10 - as a hieromonk.
After the release of Patriarch Tikhon from arrest in 1923, Bishop Varlaam repented for his deviation into schism and on September 16, 1923 he was appointed Bishop of Pskov and Porkhov, simultaneously from June 17, 1924 he ruled the Gomel vicariate.
In the autumn of 1928, at the request of the seriously ill Metropolitan. Archbishop Agafangel. Varlaam administered the Yaroslavl diocese. In October of the same year, after the death of the Yaroslavl Metropolitan, a member of the Provisional Patriarchal Synod, Archbishop. Pavel (Borisovsky). Archbishop Varlaam announced that only the ruling bishop should be commemorated in churches during divine services, and he himself - when he serves. Archbishop's attempts Paul to introduce in the churches of the Yaroslavl diocese a commemoration at the service of Metropolitan. Sergius and the civil authorities (Archbishop Pavel demanded this primarily from Varlaam as his vicar) led to a new aggravation of the situation. In reports dated November 25, 1928 (to Archbishop Pavel) and January 20, 1929 (to Metropolitan Sergius), Archbishop. Varlaam asked to abandon the introduction of these prayers in the churches of the Yaroslavl diocese and leave the diocese in the position in which it was under Metropolitan. Agafangel. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince Met. Sergius and Archbishop Pavel archbishop. Varlaam declared that he would not serve until the violence against his will ceased, a significant part of the clergy and flock of the diocese supported him. On Easter 1929, Archbishop. Varlaam and archbishop. Paul managed to find a compromise: Archbishop. Varlaam resumed the priesthood on the condition that he would not be obliged to commemorate Met. Sergius and introduce a prayer for the authorities.
Compositions
- Renan and his book. "The Life of Jesus": Exposition. content and critical analysis in the light of the gospel teaching. Poltava, 1908;
- Oh Christ. raising children. Poltava, 1910;
- Work is life. Poltava, 1912;
- Faith and reasons for unbelief. Poltava, 1912;
- Theosophy before the court of Christianity. Poltava, 1912;
- Speech when naming in ep. Gomelsky // PribtsVed. 1913. No. 2. S. 65-67;
- Letters from exile // VRSKhD. 1973. No. 108/110. pp. 36-45.
Literature
- Archival materials: CA FSB RF. D. R-41655; D. 100256; Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Ivanovo Region. D. 9974-P. T. 1-2; GARF. F. 6343. Op. 1. D. 263. L. 76; F. 353. Op. 3. D. 737; F. 6343. Op. 1. D. 263. L. 76, 118v.; Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Vologda region. D. P-14826.
- John (Snychev), Metropolitan Splits // KhCh. 1991. No. 6. S. 33-34, 42;
- he is. Church. splits. pp. 106-108, 111, 115, 119, 120;
- Not to be forgotten: Book. memory of the victims of polit. repressions connected with the destinies of the Yaroslavl region: In 3 books. Yaroslavl, 1993. Book. 2. S. 79; Damascus. Book. 2. S. 393, 396, 397, 399, 422, 519;
- Investigation case of Patriarch Tikhon: Sat. doc. M., 2000. S. 899;
- Politburo and the Church. Book. 2. S. 325, 500, 530;
- Shkarovsky M. V. Josephism: a trend in the Russian Orthodox Church. SPb., 1999. S. 19, 130-136, 144, 189, 276-277.
Used materials
- A. V. Mazyrin, M. V. Shkarovsky. Varlaam (Ryashentsev)// Orthodox Encyclopedia, v. 6, p. 598-600
Lavrinov V.V., archpriest, Renovationist split in the portraits of its leaders(Materials on the history of the Russian Church. Book 54), M .: Society of Church History Lovers, 2016, p. 618.
16.
Archbishop Varlaam,
his brother Bishop Herman and their letters.
"Glory to the infinity of the mercy of the Lord. Life is a struggle and suffering for the sake of the full good and the Lord. The more we suffer in humiliation, the more we are cleansed and soar in spirit."
Archbishop Varlaam.
In complete dead silence, he lay there alone for a long, long time, feeling the solemn mystery of human suffering in this "valley of tears", our earthly vale, listening to the beating of his heart, which soon, like a dying echo of the mortal torments of his brethren, will stop ... And only the warm-looking, soft blanket of falling snow, covering the bloody crimes of the villains, hid everything that was rude and evil, and reflected in its whiteness the purity of the coming age.
Tambov, an old patriarchal city in the heart of Holy Russia, was the birthplace of two eminent brethren-bishops, whose significance lies not only in the fact that they gave their lives as confessors of Christ, but also in their patristic teaching regarding suffering as a sure means of gaining purification, self-knowledge, deification. During a historic and sudden turning point, when an anti-Christian, materialistic philosophy was propagated everywhere as the only truth, leaving no room for Christianity even as a minority view, many people found themselves on the verge of despair. Then such teachers - comforters of souls, like these brothers, who knew well the patristic teaching about the human soul and its spiritual laws, provided the necessary assistance to cope with the gloomy reality of Soviet everyday life, so hostile and unnatural for the thousand-year experience of Holy Russia.
The future hierarch Varlaam was born on June 8, 1878, into a wealthy and pious merchant family, Stepan Ryashentsev, and was baptized as Victor. In 1896 he graduated from the Tambov classical gymnasium and entered the Kazan Theological Academy. His younger brother Nikolai, the future Bishop Herman, also studied at the Tambov classical gymnasium, and after graduating in 1902 he followed in his brother's footsteps to the same academy in Kazan.
When Victor arrived at the academy, its rector, Vladyka Anthony (Khrapovitsky), had just been consecrated as a bishop, and the atmosphere at the academy was at that time the best. All students lived to the full extent of theological and ascetic inspiration. All were unanimous under the leadership of an enthusiastic rector who was also a vigorous missionary-educator, an intellectual who was aware of the teachings of his time. The center of this academic family was the monastic spirit of church services in the chapel, where tonsure was often performed for students who wanted to devote their lives to serving in the Holy Orthodox Church.
Victor immediately plunged headlong into violent activity and became an indispensable servant at the altar. Their spiritual mentor was Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel from the nearby Sedmiezerny Bogorodichny Monastery, a disciple of the Optina Elder Ambrose. This old man with an ingenuous childish soul was a deep seer, to whom the future was revealed. In his adolescence, he was bedridden for a long time by illness; this gave him a great opportunity to practice the Jesus Prayer and gain significant experience in this. He was completely open, his attractive and loving personality cementing the bond of a spiritual father and son relationship with those who were fortunate enough to know him for a lifetime. He continued to maintain close relations with all his spiritual sons until his death in 1915. One of Victor's classmates, the future venerable martyr Archimandrite Simeon, compiled a biography of the elder, a wondrous book of literary merit, showing the living image of the saint, abiding in deep faith. Another of his classmates was the future Archbishop of Chernigov Pakhomiy.
The rector, the young Bishop Anthony, the future first candidate for Patriarch in 1918 and the first First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, made a deep impression on Victor. At first, his duty was to serve at the altar during the Divine Liturgy, standing with the episcopal staff and immersing himself deeply in the meaning of the service, when the grace of God overshadows life on earth. In 1900, he graduated from the academy, and the following year, on October 8, he was tonsured a monk by his rector, and Elder Gabriel prepared him for tonsure. The very next day he was ordained a hierodeacon, and the next day he became a hieromonk. He was given the name of Varlaam, an ancient saint who converted the Indian prince Joasaph and inspired him to become a monk.
The new monk was very close to his rector-bishop, and when in 1900 the latter was transferred as a bishop to Ufa, he took his young student to the Ufa seminary as a teacher and appointed him in 1903 as an inspector, entrusting all the churches of the Old Believers to his care, just now affiliated with the Orthodox Church. This obedience, the obedience of the dean in the churches of the same faith, must have been due to the fact that the Old Believers, with their passion for "correctness," were sometimes unpredictable.
Bishop Anthony was, first of all, a fearless defender of the Church, an apologist, active in his zeal, direct in his judgments, loving, quick and courteous. He longed to see a revival of the patriarchal administration of the Church and was inspired by the Byzantine roots of Russian civilization, different from Western roots, while remaining representative of his time.
His young student, Father Varlaam, on the other hand, although he followed in his footsteps, was distinguished by his deliberate actions and gentleness in dealing with people, which won him great respect from both colleagues and students. In 1906, already an archimandrite, he became the rector of the Poltava Seminary, where he published his apologetic works, including Faith and the Causes of Unbelief, On the Christian Education of Children, Life in Work, Theosophy before the Judgment of Christianity, and others. The main goal of his teaching was to attract listeners and readers to the otherworldliness of Christianity. Here is an example of his sermon, which was published in 1911 in the periodical "Russian Monk" (March, No. 6) on his favorite topic - the search for the Heavenly City.
We are not the imams of the city that is here, but the city to come is sought.
Heaven is our true fatherland, eternal, holy, safe from any enemies, from any destructive action of the elements, which themselves will be destroyed by burning (2 Peter 3:10). No enemy will approach him; its fire will not destroy it, as often happens with our earthly settlements; water will not sink; it is not subject to destruction, like all on earth, but the endless ages stand immovable (Heb. 12-28). There are no rich and poor there, because there will be no greed for wealth: there is no sickness, sorrow, sighing, but eternal prosperity, eternal joy; "eternal joy over their head," says the prophet Isaiah, foreseeing by the Spirit of God the blessedness of the righteous (Isaiah 51:11).
Fathers and brothers in the Lord! Let us strive there to the heights of the monastery by way of a virtuous life, so that the entrance to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is given to you abundantly (2 Pet. 1, 11).
A person with a cruel heart and working on his sinful passions will not ascend into the Kingdom of Heaven. How will one ascend to Heaven who works all his life in worldly fuss, who daily languishes with a burning thirst for earthly pleasures, he gave his heart to them and applied to them like a magnet to iron; but he has not developed the slightest taste for spiritual and heavenly blessings, - I do not say - he has not strengthened, - but does not have it at all? Bring him, perhaps, even as an example, if it were allowed, to Gorniya Village, he will be bored there too, because there is not the same as here: there are no objects he loves, there are no earthly treasures with which he cherished and pleased his heart. The dispositions, inclinations of the soul, acquired here, pass with us into that age, and what torment will be there, beyond the grave, to all who died with their earthly sinful inclinations, which always drowned out and suppressed the heavenly needs of the soul, not having time to bring all-hearted repentance to them ? This is where it will come from then, that undying worm, about which our Savior so often speaks in the Gospel: this worm is living and does not die even after the death of our sinful inclination, which cannot be satisfied with anything. But this undying worm will be joined by unquenchable fire, the fiercest fire; for it is said: Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mk. 9, 44, 46, 48).
So, if we are looking forward to the Kingdom of Heaven, for the sake of which we came out of the world and settled in the deserts, then we need to acquire heavenly truth; if we sincerely desire to live in Heaven after death, we must live in heaven on earth.
The Kingdom of Heaven is open, the Righteous Judge awaits our appeal to Him, graciously calls us to Himself, shows the abodes already prepared to all those who love Him and strive for Him, and says: “Come to Me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11, 28).
Here everything is temporary, but there it is eternal. We are not the Imams of the city that is here, but the city to come we seek (Heb. 13:14). Amen.
On January 13, 1913, he became bishop of Gomel, vicar of the Mogilev diocese. His vicariate was in the south, so to speak, in the shadow of the famous Pochaev Lavra. The consecration was performed in St. Petersburg, in the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Holy Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In the solemn moment when the betrothed bishop delivers his first sermon, after which he is to be consecrated, he said the following:
"Your Eminences, God-enlightened archpastors and fathers!
The will of the Lord, through your holiness, calls me, a sinner, to the highest service in the Church of Christ - the episcopal service. I do not know what to utter and what to say at this frightening hour. I will not hide one thing: the height of this truly apostolic ministry and the depth of responsibility before God for every soul of the shepherds and flocks fill my heart with great anxiety and fear, and I stand as if without an answer. I know my spiritual infirmities, I see my spiritual disorder, but I also know that the Lord often calls, regardless of the dignity of a person. He chooses "the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world to put the strong to shame; and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the humble and meaningless things, to abolish the things that are significant" (1 Cor. 1:27-28). From the persecutor He made himself the first apostle. Therefore, I humble myself and, in my insignificance, obey the call of the Lord: may the will of God be done in my humility. I follow it with fear, but also with readiness, for I believe that the Lord arranges everything for our good, for our salvation; with fear, but also with readiness, I accept the battle and the cross, which are inseparably connected with the episcopal ministry.
This service consists, first of all, in the renunciation of personal life. The bishop must forget his own interests and concerns. He must live not for himself, but for his flock. He must pass through his soul and mind the souls and opinions of his flock with all their weaknesses, sorrows and sufferings, he must lift the crosses of all of them on his shoulders and in himself experience the painful struggle of good with evil of each of them: to cry over the falls, to raise fallen, to be (in the words of the Apostle Paul) "in the pains of birth until Christ is formed in you!" (Gal. 4, 19), to faint and kindle for every Christian soul (2 Cor. 11, 29).
But in order to renounce personal life, one must die to self-love, to die to passions, since both separate us from Christ and from our neighbors, one must be filled with the attitude that Paul had when he said: "For my life is Christ, and death is gain (1 Phil. 1:21).
This struggle is unspeakably difficult for sinful man, but it is important. Otherwise, pastoral activity will be fruitless, otherwise the shepherd himself will be just a hired worker and will hear the voice of condemnation from the One who laid down His life for the flock and called His followers to do the same.
This inner struggle of the shepherd is always joined by an external one, consisting in a difficult external situation with pastoral activity. The world and the devil rise up against the servants of Christ, and all kinds of slander, insults, and even persecution come from this. If even a simple shepherd often weakens under this cross, what must the archpastor suffer? Who can describe his mental anguish, his frequent tears, visible and invisible? Moreover, hard times have now come: many are falling away from the faith, rising up against Christ and His holy Church. Now, when the path of truth is reproached by many (see: 2 Pet. 2:2), it is no longer possible for a shepherd to remain silent and endure sorrows in silence. It is necessary to defend the truth and testify loudly about it, to be, as it were, a confessor. And to be a confessor means to be a holy martyr. Such is the path of the saint.
I again recall the Apostle Paul, who describes his path as a confessor in this way. For Christ and for His cause, he says, "I was (...) in labor, immeasurably in wounds, more in prisons and many times at death. From the Jews five times was given to me forty [strike] without one; three times I was beaten with sticks, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, night and day I stayed in the depths [of the sea]; many times [I was] on travels, in dangers on the rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from fellow tribesmen, in dangers from pagans, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger at sea, in danger between false brethren, in labor and exhaustion, often in vigil, in hunger and thirst, often in fasting, in cold and in nakedness. adventures], I have a confluence [of people] daily, care for all the churches" (2 Cor. 11, 23-28).
What kind of faith and hope in the Lord one must have, what purity of personal life, what renunciation of oneself and love for the flock, in order to adequately endure this struggle, fearlessly testify to the truth of Christ, endure sorrows and sufferings with joy, not lose courage even in persecution, burn with zeal like the Lord, seeking the salvation of his brethren! Finally, what common sense and experience one must have in order to safely bring the ship of the Church to the harbor of salvation! The Bishop is the helmsman of this ship.
“The spiritual helmsman is the one,” says St. John of the Ladder, “who received from God and through his own exploits such a spiritual fortress that not only from anxiety, but also from the abyss itself can deliver the ship of the soul (“A special word to the shepherd”, ch. 1 , item 2) .
And again, I admit my weakness and see all my insignificance, but still, with humility, I surrender to the will of God and drive away despondency from myself, for it is God who works within us (see: Phil. 2, 13), and the shepherd does not alone, the almighty grace of God acts with him and through him, healing weakness and making up for what is lacking. “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7).
And I hope for this grace, I also hope for your holy prayers. Pray, O hierarchs of God, that the Holy Spirit may cleanse all the filthiness of my soul, that He may give me wisdom and strength to manage well the flock of Christ for the glory of God and for the salvation of the children of Christ, and that I may be worthy at the Last Judgment to stand at His right hand and to hear a silent voice calling believers to inherit the Kingdom of God. Amen".
As soon as he began his archpastoral activity, the First World War broke out with tragic consequences, especially for the south, which became the front line. However, before that, his participation in the missionary activities of the Pochaev Lavra was the happiest time in all his episcopal activities. The Lavra of St. Job has just seen a great spiritual revival thanks to the typography of the brotherhood within it, headed by another of his classmates, Archimandrite Vitaly (Maximenko, later Archbishop of Jordanville, New York). With his apostolic zeal, Father Vitaly awakened the local residents, whom for many years they had been subjected to the Uniates by force, and brought thousands of them to the Orthodox Church. Bishop Varlaam actively participated in this truly Christian activity and usually gathered huge crowds of pilgrims to religious celebrations in Pochaev, delivering fiery sermons calling on the Orthodox to be true Christians, striving during their earthly life to the Heavenly Fatherland. Really exciting were the moments when a crowd of a thousand or more pilgrims were at the vigil in the monastery, enthusiastically praying before the icon of the Monk Job, and at that time giant slides were projected onto the walls of the cathedral, illuminating the glorious Orthodox past of the Lavra and all of Holy Russia as a stronghold of the pure, intact Christianity. One bishop, Seraphim, went to these Pochaev festivities for more than a hundred kilometers with his entire flock in a procession with banners - such was the ardent faith of the Orthodox at that time. The level of Russian monasticism then was very high: many monasteries had their own saints, and monasticism, inspired by the ascetic practice of Egyptian and Athos monks, valued monastic piety for the sake of spiritual gifts, completely different from the political orientation of the pugnacious orders of the West.
But the revolution was already close. She swept through the country like some terrible whirlwind. Bishop Varlaam understood well the significance of what was happening in Russia; the satanic nature of the destruction of Christianity was evident. The very system of denunciations, lies, terror, first by the GPU, and then by the NKVD, was undoubtedly a semblance of the activity of satanic forces existing in the Slavic hierarchy of control and subordination, described in patristic literature (see, for example, the revelation of the fallen Theophilus in the Lives of the Saints). Lenin's God-fighting plan to change humanity by destroying the dignity of man as the image of God was clear enough, and it had an effect on many people who did not have spiritual maturity. Vladyka understood that what was happening was a spiritual and not just a political change in Russia. This is where the White Army miscalculated, not understanding this enough. Wherever he could, Bishop Varlaam delivered sermons, but mainly he focused on mobilizing the spiritual forces of his own and his fellow believers, strengthening humility.
Since September 3, 1923, Bishop Varlaam has been Bishop of Pskov. This city is dear to him, because his brother, the future Bishop German, after graduating from the Kazan Academy in 1906, taught at the Pskov Seminary. This city also reminded them of their common Kazan elder Father Gabriel, who spent his last years of his life in the St. Eliazar Monastery near Pskov. But to die, Elder Gabriel went to Kazan, where he died among his beloved children, and Father Herman went there to take part in his funeral.
The life of Vladyka Herman was not very different from the life of his brother. Before the revolution, he was an inspector, and then rector of the Bethany Seminary in the vicinity of St. Sergius Lavra. There he knew the saints, people of high spiritual aspirations, and he remembered that region of the disappearing Holy Russia years later in the remote northern reaches of Siberia with warm feelings and tears, as if the Bethany Seminary was a paradise for him.
In the summer of 1922, Bishop German was arrested and exiled to Tobolsk, and then followed the way of the cross through the concentration camps in Solovki, in the center of Russia, to Komi, ending in 1937 in the far North: he was shot on September 15 in Syktyvkar. But he was well prepared to accept his fate.
Bishop Herman was always attracted by a solitary hermit life. While in exile in Arzamas, he met holy perspicacious mothers from the closed Diveevo monastery, and one of them predicted to him that his dream of a solitary hermit life would come true - only in exile instead of a monastery. He had a refined soul and a poetic vision of life. His dissertation at the academy "The Moral Views of St. Simeon the New Theologian", highly appreciated in academic circles, undoubtedly had a great influence on the formation of his spiritual worldview. With what humility and humor he describes in his letters how he cleaned the latrines, scooped out their contents, while getting the opportunity to imitate St. John of Damascus! Together with his brother, he left many letters addressed to his spiritual daughters, members of the catacomb monastery, where there were many allegories due to strict postal checking. But what a wealth of spiritual refinement and wisdom is contained in these letters! What a beautiful classical language, sublime and lyrical! Truly, these are treasures that emerged from the catacombs of the 20th century.
From December 1924, Bishop Varlaam was Bishop of Mogilev for a year. How things have changed since then! He was transferred all the time because of the constant arrests of bishops. On July 13, 1927, he became Bishop of Perm, and when he temporarily served in Yaroslavl, Metropolitan Sergius issued a shameful declaration. This document was not unexpected for him, but it was absolutely unacceptable to any Orthodox soul. Together with the local hierarchs, Bishop Varlaam signed the document of protest.
Your Eminence,
In your address to the children of the Orthodox Church on July 29, 1927, you categorically announce such a program for your future leadership activities, the implementation of which would inevitably bring new disasters to the Church, aggravate Her ailments and sufferings. According to your program, the spiritual and Divine principles in the Church’s dispensation are wholly subordinate to the worldly principles, not all-round care for the protection of the true faith and Christian piety, but unnecessary servility to “external” people and nothing, leaving no room for the most important condition for organizing the internal church life. according to the precepts of Christ and the Gospel - the freedom granted to the Church by her Heavenly Liberator and inherent in her very nature (the Church). To the children of the Church, and above all, of course, to the episcopate, you make it a duty to be loyal to the civil authorities.
We welcome this demand and testify that we have always been, are and will be loyal and obedient to civil authority; we have always been and are and will be honest and conscientious citizens of our native country, but we believe that this has nothing to do with the politicking and flirting imposed by you and does not oblige the children of the Church to voluntarily renounce those rights of free arrangement of the internal religious life of church society, which are given by the very same civil power (election by communities of believing spiritual leaders for themselves).
In place of the inner-church freedom restored by Christ, you are widely using administrative arbitrariness, from which the Church suffered much before. At your own discretion, you practice aimless, unjustified, transfer of bishops, often against the wishes of themselves and their flock, appointment of vicars without the knowledge of diocesan bishops, prohibition of bishops objectionable to you from serving, etc.
All this and much more in the area of your management of the Church, being, in our deep conviction, a clear violation of the canonical definitions of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, the decisions of the All-Russian Council of 1917-18, and intensifying more and more disorganization and devastation in Church life, compels us to declare to Your Eminence: "We, the Bishops of the Yaroslavl Church Region, recognizing our responsibility before God for our children entrusted to our pastoral guidance, and considering it our sacred duty to protect in every possible way the purity of the Holy Orthodox Faith and the freedom bequeathed by Christ to arrange the internal religious and church life, in order to calm the troubled conscience of the faithful, for lack of any other way out of the situation that has become fatal for the Church, from now on we separate from you and refuse to recognize you and your Synod as the right to supreme governance of the Church.
Our present decision remains in force until you realize the wrongness of your leadership actions and measures and openly repent of your errors, or until the return to power of His Eminence Metropolitan Peter.
Agafangel, Metropolitan of Yaroslavl.
Seraphim, Archbishop of Uglich (Vicar of the Yaroslavl Diocese, former Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens).
Metropolitan Joseph (3rd of the deputies indicated by the Patriarchal Locum Tenens).
Archbishop Varlaam (former Perm, temporarily managing the Lyubimsky vicariate).
Eugene, Bishop of Rostov (Vicar of the Yaroslavl diocese).
In response to this protest, Metropolitan Sergius did not find anything better than to issue a decree in which all those hierarchs who did not agree with his declarations were automatically declared "counter-revolutionaries", and as such were subject to arrest by agents of the GPU as enemies of the people. Bishop Varlaam and everyone else immediately sent another message, stating that they were not protesting against Metropolitan Sergius's right to govern, but that they did not agree with his policy. Nevertheless, all the hierarchs who, in one way or another, expressed disagreement and did not blindly follow Metropolitan Sergius, were indeed arrested, and most of them disappeared forever without a trace. Bishop Varlaam was then the temporary administrator of the Lyubim vicariate in the Yaroslavl diocese. On April 11, 1928, he was officially released from his archpastoral duties by Metropolitan Sergius and the Provisional Patriarchal Synod under him. On September 7, 1929, for his opposition to Metropolitan Sergius, he was arrested and imprisoned, and spent the rest of his life in suffering - long prison sentences were replaced by short periods of relative freedom in exile. Yaroslavl prison in later years was considered one of the most sinister and cruel places in the Soviet system, but exile was little better. In 1931 he was in Solovki, in 1933 he was in exile in Vologda.
The state of complete despair, which in those years especially the priests experienced, was so strong that few people made any difference between it and death. They knew that they were condemned to death, and the only question was when the sentence would be carried out. In this respect, it was the happiest time of their lives, since the meeting with Christ was close.
One witness, who years later knew Father Dimitri Dudko, stated: “In the camps we often met our brother priests and secretly celebrated the liturgy, sometimes on a wooden box, sometimes on someone’s back; at that time we constantly thought whether such things. The thirst to be with Christ was stronger than any obstacle. Sometimes acquaintances of their own free will sent the Holy Gifts. There, behind bars and barbed wire, as in some Orthodox missions, we secretly performed all the holy church rites. I baptized, married and + There are recollections that one priest who did not accept Sergianism, Father Alexander, came to work early every day, at dawn, and, kneeling down, served the Liturgy on a stump. Some people saw how a beam of light descended from the sky directly into the bowl, transforming it and those around it.++
Father Nikolai Trubetskoy "Bulletin", Paris, 1979, No. 128.
++ Memories of Princess N. Urusova.
A pure man, a humble and kind monk, with a soft, loving heart, who loved long church services according to the monastic charter, Archbishop Varlaam suffered severely from being separated from his spiritual children, who treated him like an old man and an indispensable spiritual mentor. Whenever possible, he wrote letters of instruction to them. For those who were "at large", these letters were like a breath of fresh air in the suffocating Soviet reality. They breathed the spirit of true Christian humility. Together with his brother's letters, they constitute what today might be called Christian teaching on how to endure suffering in a society that has become hostile and hateful towards ordinary people.
The letters that survived and, thanks to samizdat, found their way into the free world were written from 1923 to 1936, after which nothing was heard of Bishop Herman at all. There are seven letters from Archbishop Varlaam and thirty-nine from his brother. They were written to encourage their spiritual children, and the main theme is one - peace of mind and guidance in acquiring the main virtue - humility. They also contain, in a veiled form, some information about their authors - about constant persecution, about life in prison, then in exile and again in prison; and the lack of malice in them is astonishing. Here are some of the main points of their teaching.
1. The letters contain an analysis of the patterns of behavior of our fallen nature from the patristic, spiritual and psychological points of view.
2. The lessons they give come from their personal experiences in the deeply tragic situation they are forced to endure: exile, constant lack of everything necessary for everyday life, persecution, repeated expulsions (in the case of Bishop Herman) and physical infirmity (Archbishop Varlaam ).
3. They show wonderful peace of mind, deeply poetic inner inspiration, they are full of retellings (due to the lack of books in exile) of lofty patristic writings about ascetic life or lyrical digressions on the themes of a past life, or hidden beauty even of a present life. Briefly, the letters give an ascetic philosophy of love for God and for life.
4. Significance of suffering. Suffering is when our spirit or our "ego" must separate from our own idea of justice and accept the justice of God, which is harsh on our soul; in other words, it means accepting God's will instead of our own, so that we can become God's instruments.
5. The meaning of spiritual happiness. "What happiness and what boundless and eternal joy to be at least partially involved in those Wounds that healed everyone, and to be at least a minute particle of that mighty eternal Power that shows all creatures the eternally ancient and eternally new path to Resurrection through self-sacrifice and love,” wrote Bishop Herman. Here are some passages from the writings of the Bishop Brothers.
Letters from Bishop Valaam.
1. About the right spiritual approach.
(Letter from Archbishop Varlaam to Abbess M.)
You want to see your correction from infirmities and omissions and justify yourself by this; this is not entirely correct, read what he wrote earlier: your soul has not yet perceived everything said there; You can’t do it right away, don’t be surprised: it will become clear gradually with God’s help. I repeat briefly:
1. We are justified not by correction, not by good deeds - all this happens with us is tarnished by our common sinfulness and we are obliged to do all this according to our god-like nature - but we are justified by humility and repentance: humiliate” (Ps. 50, 19). You will find about this somewhere in the letters of the Optina elder Macarius. Therefore, it is good that you have errors and weaknesses: upon your repentance and contrition, they will lead you into Paradise. And if they don’t turn out to be, then relying on your serviceability can greatly hinder you with a secret self-price, a Pharisaic hope for the labors incurred, virtues: “you deserve it - pay it”.
2. Further write: “I am afraid to take communion often, I am not corrected, the sins are the same.” Well, do you wash your underwear and clothes often, don’t get angry at their malfunction, at the fact that they are always covered with the same dust and dirt? Isn't it the other way around? Look at the purity of the soul in the same way: the more a person cares about it, the better; the more often the dirt washes away, the more pleasant it is for the Lord: and do not be embarrassed that the dirt is the same, as long as it doesn’t get worse, and that’s fine. It doesn't matter what the purity of the soul may be powdered with: the time has come - and it is necessary to erase, wash away the impure with repentance. And to the Lord one repentant sinner is more pleasing than ten self-satisfied righteous.
3. "I would like to be like M., but now, I'm afraid, I would not be lower than the worldly." This means you want to be righteous again, do not love humility, everyone wants to rise to the top. It's all the evil one who wants to make you out of you in every way so that you think of yourself: “Never mind, like other people” (Lk. 18:11). And why do you despise the worldly? Don't you know, many worldly people will be higher than monks. The worldly people have a lot of humility of the tax collector, patience, contrition, and the monks very often have self-principles, callousness of heart, Pharisees' righteousness ("work hard - pay"). A humble person does not compare himself with anyone, he sees everyone better than himself and closer to God, but in some respects he considers himself worse than demons. Of course, we won’t grow up to such humility, but at least reproach ourselves in our hearts in everything and for everything (not in words, this is often just a proud panache), don’t condemn anyone and don’t rise above anyone.
4. “I miss the rule, I get tired ...” So what? After all, we are saved not by the rule, but by humility and sighs to God in general. You seem to attach great importance to the number of bows and other readable things. No, all this may turn out to be ringing copper: the whole thing is contrition of the heart. It is useful for you to establish a rule not by quantity, but by time, for example: in the morning you can pray for one or two hours. So, slowly, with contrition of the heart, but in places with a stop, if the heart is sweetened and softened, and do something from your rule, without thinking about doing everything. So it may happen that you go through only 1/2 or 3/4 of the previous rule, and the appointed time is over, then the deeds of obedience (cleaning, stove, etc.). And what? Do not be embarrassed, finish as much as you have time for, and know that the Lord will not ask you more, and will never praise you for your haste. He needs your heart, not counting bows, not a subtraction mechanism. Another, perhaps one canon or akathist, will read for a whole hour, but with weeping and breaking away for heartfelt appeals to God - this is real prayer. It is possible to read both the Gospel and the Psalter, again, without chapters and markings, but according to strength and time, taking care of the quality, in order to read with self-absorption, and not with haste. For the sake of the work of obedience and care for your neighbors, you must always shorten the time of your prayer, since obedience is higher than fasting and prayer, and not be embarrassed, but realize the importance of serving your neighbors. The number of bows and some regularity in the rule are necessary for the newcomers in order to accustom them to prayer, and when they have already become accustomed to prayer to a certain extent, then one should not bind one’s feeling by the number of bows, but it is better to pray freely, in accordance only with the amount of time.
5. "Reproach me and point out the shortcomings." First of all, you should be praised for your frankness and zeal for salvation. And you need to be scolded for your exaggerated love of serviceability, for calculating good deeds and deeds and for relying on them, which is why you don’t see the boundless value of humility, which exceeds all our deeds and lame virtues. This weak foundation, one might say, is made of sand and is very tolerant only at the beginning of spiritual life, and then it will harm those who strive: it is easy, with external serviceability (reading the rules, observing fasts) and free from external falls, to go over to spiritual self-price and pride, and from here to holiness or clairvoyance on the left side. Rather, throw this foundation out of your head and heart, stop appreciating feats, correcting the rules, and so on. Do every available good and carry every feat as an order from God, not at all regarding it, for the value is not in them, but in the acquisition through them of humility, faith, deep purity, repentance, contrition, and finally, love for God and for neighbors. Nobody praises a student when he is still studying, but when he receives a diploma. All feats are only lessons (supports), and a diploma is in humility, contrition, purity (possible). Another will come into all this through sorrow or illness, without special feats and rules, and he will be no lower than those who struggled. So make your spiritual foundation, seeking self-reproach, repentance, patience, contrition and strong hope, not deceived by the mercy of God. And at the Last Judgment, the righteous confess only to their humility and worthlessness, and not to good deeds, although they did them. Here is the true mood.
2. About "good" moods and conceit.
The despondent does not believe in the mercy of God, but is based on his rotten deeds and alleged corrections. He tends to forget and rushes about like a chicken with an egg. Constantly sets the thermometer to your mood. Alas, the fruits of selfishness.
Do not exalt yourself before any sinner and do not rely on your serviceability and lack of mischief: self-tsen can eat all our exploits and virtues, if any. The meek patience of other people's sins, although the most difficult thing, is also the most profitable and true.
3. About patience.
Where there is patience, there is more salvation; a comparatively calm life, even if with a good prayerful mood, is still lower than a restless one with a bad prayerful mood. That is the true value of such things.
4. What to be afraid of.
We must be afraid not of errors, but of coldness of heart, self-satisfaction, a restless mood.
5. About serviceability.
We are all obsessed with self-value, therefore, even with little service in any respect, we inflate our worth and imperceptibly become subtle Pharisees: we boast that grace (not we) has done to us by the grace of God, and not for our merits. Therefore, in a spiritual sense, serviceability can harm us more than a malfunction with a repentant feeling. You will say: "If you are in good working order, you can repent." And what to repent of, since we see ourselves as serviceable? There is one step to beauty. Correctness cannot be true. Therefore, the holy fathers teach that we are not justified by deeds, although we are obliged to do them (by the power of God), like a bird is obliged to sing, for this is what it was created for, and we ... “were created for good deeds,” such is our nature. It is ridiculous, for example, to be proud that we have two arms and two legs: such is nature; and to do good is the natural work of the soul. And if we do not create, then we sin gravely, violating the nature and will of God. So you need to repent and grieve, and for contrition, the Lord forgives sins by His grace. Even if we lived without sin, fully serviceable, the Lord would save us again for humility and selfless love for Him, as was the case with the Mother of God, and not for serviceability. Therefore, one can asceticise, but not to justify one's exploits and deeds, but to acquire greater humility and repentance. Therefore, if someone fasts and prays not to acquire humility, but to please God and justify himself, then he is mistaken.
6. About infirmities.
Do not lose heart in weaknesses and do not consider them as your enemies - on the contrary, they, although plain, are our spiritual friends-publicans.
7. About sorrows.
Sorrows are shown, and together they pave the way to eternal unearthly joys and experiences, where the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints.
It seems that the time has come, the Lord calls His own and cleanses with sorrows for the transition to heavenly life, for this, after all, we live. Be the will of God and His mercy! Let us hope for this and prepare to stand before God every day, to live as in Holy Week.
8. About contrition.
Seeing and evaluating any of your deeds and deeds will increase the sinful and deceitful self-value and belittle the whole hope for the only mercy of God: they say, I have worked hard, and therefore have mercy. The most faithful and pleasing to God from us is the following: “Lord, I have nothing, I don’t even dare to raise my eyes, have mercy on me according to Your great mercy.” And mercy will be the greater, the more contrition and hope in God, not in deeds and anything of one's own.
9. Inner temple.
Do not weep a lot about the temple, because each of us, by the grace of God, has or should have his own temple - the heart: go there and pray as much as you have strength and time. If this temple is not organized or will be forgotten (without inner prayer), then the visible temple will be of little help.
Letters from Bishop Herman.
You and I have not reached that spiritual state when a purely spiritual, or rather, gracious energy overcomes not only the weakness of our flesh and body, but inspires our wingless spirit, bound by this burden, which is also not omnipotent and without God. For the time being, we all live rich in natural, from nature and parents, given to us by physical and spiritual reserves. The Spirit of God and the Lord works through our physical freshness and energetic soulfulness. And life itself at this time does not yet reveal its whole face to us, because we have so much vivacity and even more often good idealistic and all kinds of other enthusiasm. But sooner or later this streak comes to an end, for everyone comes its own Gethsemane with its struggles and exhaustion to a bloody sweat, and then Golgotha. Both are painful and painful, and most often it is painful precisely because our spirit must renounce its righteousness (no matter how pure and ideal it may seem to us) and come to terms with the righteous will of God, which is always embarrassing and difficult for our souls.
You write that by the 1st of May there should be “so-and-so”, and this makes your whole heart groan and you say: “This is the will of God, nothing can be painful in it,” and yet you are tormented. Remember the bloody sweat of Gethsemane, remember these constant words of our Teacher that you can follow Him only by "taking up the cross", and all this should tell you that the transition of our spirit into the will of God is always painful, like any transition from a simpler form of being. into a more perfect and higher, like any physical and, all the more so, spiritual birth. We have here on earth only the beginning of this total transition of our will into the will of God, our mind (even a believer) into the Divine Mind, our small and imperfect love into the perfect and all-embracing Trinitarian Love. When a person already more fully, positively (that is, loving it, considering it to be the only truth of life) takes the side of this Eternal Truth or completely repels it, then he no longer lives and necessarily dies. He went through everything that this life can give and is ripe for the future.
The meaning of personal Gethsemane is internally suffering and trembling, patiently fulfilling what is commanded to us, not making ourselves nervous about why this is so, and not otherwise, because both strong shocks from a living perception of good and terrible falls equally sometimes lead to God. Judas was with Christ all the time and betrayed Him; the thief was without Christ all the time and believed in Him. If neither in the life of the Lord, nor in the history of our faith, there were clear indications of these changes of light and dark and the final triumph of light, then, of course, it would be terrible, but we must cheer our hearts with the words of the Apostle Paul spoken about the Jews. and the Gentiles, perhaps applicable to those who are now living: "for God hath shut up all in disobedience, that he might have mercy on all" (Rom. 11:32). Moreover, we do not know how close or far from us is the sorrow of "those days", which never happened and which even the elect cannot endure, if for their sake the Lord had not shortened its days. We live in a time when too great upheavals are needed not only to awaken a person's thought, but to return a person to the center of everything truly human - to his heart. Your physical and mental fatigue is understandable from here. Let us humbly bear His cross, waiting, if not here, then there, from the Lord for rest and full revelation of the deepest meaning of everything that now hurts and beats us so much.
August is coming to an end soon. Involuntarily, despite the sharp daily worries, thoughts and anxieties, pushing back somewhere deep into the soul all the former, today we recall the Gethsemane feast [Assumption of the Virgin Mary, August 15], a quiet skete filled with people, a long and touching service near the tomb of the Most Pure, a solemn walk with Her Shroud along the alleys of the skete under the red ringing of bells, a plentiful meal with cauliflower and fragrant currant kvass, and Bethany with a chic rector, and a cozy settlement with a house not far from the monastery. In this memory, purely spiritual experiences are intertwined with worldly and earthly ones, which are difficult to separate from each other, just as it is impossible to cut the soul and body and change their mysterious combination. All this is covered with some kind of tender, heart-wrenching, bluish haze of sadness, as they gave on a clear summer day, and everything present, with all its spiritual advantages over the past, seems so cruel, rude and harsh. Will there ever be an opportunity to combine this former, without its sin, with the present, without its cruel upheavals and hardships, into one bright whole, where Christ would be in everything, His non-evening light and mutual love, without which it is so homeless and dreary at the present time ?! In the meantime, His sword of separation cuts once close and like-minded, and there is no His meek humility and peace even among those who are equally called by His name. But I believe that it will be, and the soul of everyone who has gone through the torment of deprivations, falls, betrayals, cowardice and denial again, not only with his lips or a fleeting movement of feelings, but with his whole life will sing “hosanna” to Him as the only Conqueror of death and evil.
It seems to me that there is not only the destruction of the stronghold and what is for many the holy of saints, but there is a purification of these shrines, their consecration through the fire of cruel trials and verifications, the destruction of forms that suppress with their peculiar, but often in many ways earthly beauty, the effectiveness of what is shackled in them meaning and content; new forms are formed that make it easier to penetrate into them and fill them with precisely that spirit and life, which are often denied by their creators and often, in the name of a conscious and deliberate struggle with Him, are fundamentally denied, so that, as if on purpose, through Golgotha of humiliation, rise in strength. See how life has actually become ascetic, how self-restraint, unprecedented self-denial becomes not an exception, but the rule of every person, how necessary everything that is disparate and in almost all areas of life most heterogeneous in content goes to unity through collectivism, etc. etc. You will say: but all this is not in His name, but against Him. Yes, it's true. Now everything is with His seal in sorrow, in Gethsemane and on Golgotha. It's right. But it is also undoubted that all efforts and creativity are aimed at creating such forms of life, which in their fundamental and ideological part are all foreordained by Him, cannot be realized without Him and will inevitably lead to Him. "All through Him, by Him and to Him," and only either unreasonable grief, or shallow thinking over these great words of the Apostle prevents us from seeing that all this is being done. Involuntarily, the words of Chrysostom are recalled: "God does His will through those very people who hinder and oppose. He uses His enemies as an instrument of His glory, so that you know that no one will annul God's decree and no one will turn away His high right hand." Ancient Israel, through the ruins of its wonderful temple, through long years of deprivation of its soul-touching services and a whole sea of tears, had to come to another house of God, in which, however, they saw the One about whom both sacrifice and prophecy spoke. Magdalene came to Him through the horror of obsession, Mary of Egypt through the furnace of depravity and violent fornication, the thief through the torment of the cross. Here, it seems to me, are those milestones that should be set for any sorrow, and especially memories that are unbearable due to sadness. You and, perhaps, most of us were near Him, You were even at His feet, when He was fragrant with goodness and was surrounded by the greatness of miracles and the light of reverence; now do not be afraid of His reproach, Gethsemane and Golgotha, so that if not around you, then in yourself you see the invincible light of His truth and resurrection ...
May the Lord help you in the coming winter with all your worries and anxieties. Everyone now lives through narrow gates, and the one who meekly accepts them as an inevitable, the only and saving path is much happier than those who are nervous, angry at their inconvenience and as if waiting to be pushed and pushed through them.
I think that what you are experiencing to one degree or another is now experienced by quite a lot of people, and only the noise of the current reality and the grandiose restructuring, which requires extreme tension of all the spiritual forces of a person, muffles these quiet groans of the soul and makes it difficult to understand their prophetic meaning. Your condition is a reflection of a general illness and is by no means something hopeless, from which one must admit oneself to psychasthenia. It is not without the will of God that we are placed in this cycle of passions, struggle and all kinds of daring and falling. He does not tempt anyone with evil, and if the spirit of exorbitant pride and sensuality is taken away from the reality around us, then in everything we will see a reflection of His Truth and His commandments. Its laws are embedded in the thoughts and hearts of people. It is ineradicable, like nature. And although the builders ignore Him in every possible way and want to eliminate Him and even the memory of Him from life, He remains the cornerstone and strength of the basic ideas of the new society. This is the guarantee of both enlightenment, and conversion, and spiritual renewal, and for those who suffer and are ill over this "retreat" - encouragement, calmness and patience ...
Don't be discouraged! We are always naked and powerless without Him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Can He not be with us when there is such a storm all around and within us?! And with Him you can endure everything and face all trials courageously. He is able to instantly take away all the pain from your heart and heal the disease of your soul, but he does not do this, because it is better to get over it, and for this you need to ask Him only for patience.
Death of the righteous.
The information that we have about the last years of Archbishop Varlaam's life comes from the meager references to this period in his brother's letters, based on what his spiritual daughters wrote to him after their visits to Archbishop Varlaam.
In 1931, Bishop German writes: “Since July I have been living in Veliky Ustyug. Kolya (meaning himself) had to see and endure a lot of hardships in these parts, but now he lives more or less calmly. Vitya (this is about Archbishop Varlaam) recently went to him to replace Zosima (referring to the Solovetsky concentration camp in the monastery of St. Zosima).
1932: "Varlya at the Medvezhya Gora station near Petrozavodsk (a concentration camp with the most ferocious conditions)."
1933: “The other day I was very glad that indeed the dove of God [Vladyka Varlaam] was released from captivity, but I don’t know the details yet. This is all the more joyful because there was very little hope for this, and they said that even he died. , a lot of my brothers and brothers, and especially where the Lord brought me from, have already moved to eternal rest. Only yesterday I received letters from there, and it’s terribly human to read and, moreover, to feel how death stands over almost everyone, with by whom you are connected not only by a common path, but also by the unity of hopes; but, on the other hand, in this dying you feel something redeeming and resurrecting ... Hearty greetings to mom and Victor.
In December of the same year: "Vitya is still safe in Vologda [in exile]".
1934: "Varlya still lives in Vologda".
1935: "Varlaam, apparently, has become completely disabled: he cannot walk for more than a few minutes from extreme fatigue of the heart."
In June 1936: "They went through Vologda to see the sick man ... Two of his closest ones were with him. A small room with dirty wallpaper, separated from the owners by a thin partition with a curtain instead of a door. A poorly covered bed, a table and two other tables near the walls. That's the whole situation. They write that he is thin, pale and completely gray-haired. One feels poverty - as it seemed to them (it is), pleasant for the sick person. He received them very kindly, took an interest in his brother's life and advised him more to do with the inner world than with outer affairs, although good ones. There is also much truth in this. He gave them spiritual advice and comforted them greatly. Christ save him. He is pleased with his illness, which chained him to the bed and made him almost a recluse. I myself am deeply I believe in the providence of this, it saves him from tiring travels and undoubtedly helps him to accumulate even more that spiritual warmth, which is so necessary in our cold time.His brother [Bishop Herman himself] still lives in the same conditions. You probably know about the disease [arrest] that seized his loved ones. For him, this is a great sorrow, although everything that happened was not without the will of God, who knows better than us how to lead each person to his final and eternal goal.
And in December he writes: "Isn't it better for me to imitate my brother Vita, who lives like a recluse."
These are the last words of Bishop Herman known to us.
In the letters of Archbishop Varlaam himself, there are even fewer references to him; we can only guess what was in his heart. "Being a cell attendant is very good for saving the soul. As for me, I would go to someone as a cell attendant, but, alas, I have neither the strength nor the opportunity. My legs are better now ... But my general condition is worse. Before Shrovetide "I had a stroke. The doctor visited me twice. Now, thank God, I'm better. Everything that is tiring is bad for me, so I had to shorten my prayer time. I need fresh air, but all I can do is go outside for ten minutes... During Great Lent, I read the entire psalter and shorten the hours.The psalmist says: "I remember the days of old, I meditate on all your works..." (142, 5) It is also very useful for you to remember the holy things in your life. This is not vanity, but a comforting relief to the soul; it takes the place of spiritual reading."
After these few words, dating back to about 1936, Archbishop Varlaam was abandoned. Letters from his brother came less and less until they stopped altogether. On September 15, 1937, Bishop German was shot in the nightmarish system of prisons and labor camps, which was then headed by the maniac Yezhov. The number of guests of Archbishop Varlaam also decreased significantly, as they also suffered a similar fate. The pain in his legs and throughout his body increased, and deep inside his almost immobile body settled a constant and all-pervading cold. Years of fading dragged on. His aching heart was still beating.
The world was at war. The hope of the Russian people that they would be freed from the atheistic yoke grew with every day of war and hardship. The suffering of the people also increased, as the authorities increased oppression out of fear. No one had time for Archbishop Varlaam. And in his abandoned state, he understood everything and prayed unceasingly for peace. He knew about the crowns of glory that God would place on those who suffered, on those who cultivated in themselves kindness of heart, all-forgiving love and a deep understanding of human weakness... And he prayed for everyone.
He had not yet died in the terrible Vologda prison... Listening to the majestic singing of the howling snowstorm, the many-voiced choir that rolled like waves over the ever-changing sea of life, he could not help but pray to his patron, the Reverend Varlaam, that wondrous ascetic of antiquity. It is said that before the death of a person, his patron saint, along with his guardian angel, come to accompany the soul to another world. This saint came to India and met Prince Joasaph, who was to inherit all the earthly riches of the great kingdom. But Varlaam, filled with heavenly zeal to make him heir to the Kingdom of Heaven, converted him to Christ. And the Heavens were opened to him, and he saw the meaning of human existence and what is prepared for those who love God the Life-giver. Oh, what bliss he experienced when he was separated from the body and entered the Heavenly Kingdom of Christ! He saw what inexpressible joy awaits mortals for all the suffering endured in this valley of tears, in our earthly kingdom! The life of these saints represents the true discovery of Paradise, and the suffering hierarch Varlaam, now half-frozen and covered with snow in his wretched shelter, read about this so many times in his youth that he could not help but remember: “Having prayed like this with tears, he, after many kneeling, sank to the floor in exhaustion ... he sees himself in the company of some extraordinary creatures, in places that he has never seen, namely, in some kind of large plain, adorned with beautiful, fragrant flowers, various trees, burdened with wonderful, unknown to him fruits, beautiful and very seductive in appearance.The leaves of the trees rustled merrily in the gentle breeze, spreading a pleasant aroma.There were thrones of pure gold, adorned with precious stones, from which emanated a wonderful brilliance, and a couch covered with a veil, the beauty of which is inexpressible in words. The flowing bright waters delighted the eye.Across this wonderful, beautiful plain, those extraordinary creatures led him towards the magnificent mountains an ode to gleaming golden walls that ended in impregnable battlements of stone such as no one had ever seen. Oh, how to express all the beauty, all the splendor of this city?! The light of the sun's rays brightly illuminated the streets of the city, along which the troops marched cheerfully, representing themselves as light, singing songs unheard by the ear of a mortal. And Joasaph heard a voice saying that this is the resting place of the righteous, the joy of those who have managed to please the Lord" (St. John of Damascus).
Finally, the frost stopped pestering him, and the soft sparkling snow, like lightning, with a soft light illuminated for the soul of the righteous Hierarch Varlaam the way up, where the righteous will rest. And he went up to the place prepared for the righteous, to join the saints who glorify God forever. Amen!
Holy New Martyrs Barlaam and Herman, pray to God for us!
Hegumen German (Podmoshensky).
Sources. Polsky's Russia's New Martyrs, Vol. 2; "Russian Monk", March 6, 1911; Archbishop Nikon, Biography of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, Vol. I; Archimandrite Symeon, Schema- Archimandrite Gabriel, Elder of Pskov; Regelson, The Tragedy of the Russian Church; St. John of Damascus, Life of Sts. Ioasaph and Barlaam; "Nadezhda" (periodical), No 5; "Vestnik", Nos. 107 and 109. – Polish "New Russian Martyrs", vol. 2; "Russian monk", March 6, 1911; Archbishop Nikon "Biography of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky)", vol. I, Archimandrite Simeon "Schiarchimandrite Gabriel, Elder of Pskov"; Regelson "The Tragedy of the Russian Church"; Saint John of Damascus. "A heartfelt story about the life of Barlaam and Joasaph"; "Hope" (periodical), No. 5; "Vestnik", Nos. 107 and 109.
N. immediately got into the carriage and galloped towards the “dear guest”.
The landowner left alone, because he did not consider it convenient to introduce the children to the lord on the road, and besides, he did not know “how his Eminence would treat him.” After the incident with the “Vladyka’s umbrella”, N. had some doubts about Vladyka, and doubted even to such an extent that he was not sure whether Vladyka would deign to put him in his carriage, as all his predecessors did, or leave him to gallop around. police chief, front or rear. This, in fact, could seriously concern N., because he was very fond of honor, and all the former n-lords usually put him with them in the carriage. Why not comfort him with this, especially after such an ambiguous story with the “sovereign umbrella”, which a more resolute person would simply call “sovereign nihilism”?
And now, a little over half an hour later, on a gentle slope, far visible from the top floor of the house, a rapidly moving column of dust appeared, and in it was the bishop's train, which, however, turned out to be very small. Only a triple droshky jumped up to the temple, in which N. was sitting somewhat dissatisfied or embarrassed, and in the carriage a very simple old man with a good-natured face, in a black hood, behind them, in the back convertible behind the carriage, a man who alone made up the entire retinue of the bishop . This, by the way, was one of the reasons for the embarrassment noticeable on the linden tree. N. was not accustomed to such simplicity and considered it a new sign of nihilism penetrating everywhere, which could have a bad influence not only on the peasants, but also on the owner's children and on the clergy themselves. Moreover, this simplicity, so desirable and so beneficial for the poor rural clergy, left without use much of what was prepared for the treat of the proposed large company and spoiled the whole effect of the meeting. There was no one even to “execute the despot” at the entrance of the lord. Judge as you wish, but a good Orthodox Christian could not remain calm and satisfied, seeing such a “ruin of paternal custom.”
But besides, N. had even more intense chagrin that Vladyka not only did not put him in the carriage, but even “stung him” for his zeal. Namely, he simply bowed to N. through the window and asked:
- Where are you hurrying? right, on business? Resent! Things come first, and I can manage without you.
- No, how can you, my lord! I went out on purpose to meet your Eminence.
- And for what reason?
N. mixed up; he did not expect such a strange question and answered:
- So ... I wanted to pay my respects to you.
- Here you go! what an eco deal! This could be done at home too.
- I wanted blessings, lord ...
- Yeah! blessings; Well, God bless you, - Vladyka answered, - and now sit down as soon as possible in your place and drive on. Zharyn, I'm tired, I want to go into the cold.
And, having seated N. in his former place, Vladyka rolled up, as he had hitherto been riding, alone in his carriage, and then immediately began a series of “strange acts in a nihilistic calm” that extremely embarrassed the pious host.
Firstly, the bishop walked quickly, and when, upon his entry into the church, the landowner's children (among whom one was in the uniform of a cavalry officer) sang “It is worthy to eat” and “use”, he stopped and listened to them with great attention and pleasure , and then he praised them and, soon going around the temple, again began to praise their harmonious singing. Having learned from the young people, upon leaving the church, that they make up a home choir, which they perform opera choral singing, he wished to listen to their secular singing. This seemed quite tempting to old N., and the young people gladly sang for the bishop several passages from A Life for the Tsar and from Ruslan, as well as from Faust and from The Prophet.
Born on June 22, 1974 in the city of Izobilny, Stavropol Territory, in a family of workers. Baptized in infancy.
In 1989 he graduated from secondary school No. 1 in Izobilny, in 1992 - Polytechnic Lyceum No. 1 in Stavropol. In 1998 he graduated from the Stavropol Theological Seminary.
While studying at the seminary on July 17, 1996, he took monastic vows with the name Varlaam in honor of St. Varlaam Khutynsky. With the blessing of the Metropolitan of Stavropol and Baku, Gideon (Dokukin), the tonsure was performed by the inspector of the seminary, hegumen Peter (Kuzovlev).
September 15, 1996 in the Cathedral of ap. Andrew the First-Called in Stavropol was ordained a hierodeacon by Metropolitan Gideon, on September 27 in the same church - a hieromonk. Appointed rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Sotnikovskaya Blagodarnensky district of the Stavropol Territory.
After graduating from the seminary in 1998, he was appointed cleric of the church of St. Theodosius of Chernigov, Ipatov. In 1999 he was appointed rector of the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of the village of Karmalinovskaya, Novoaleksandrovsky district, Stavropol Territory.
On December 25, 1999, he was appointed rector of the Church of the Intercession in the Sleptsovskaya village of the Sunzhensky district of the Republic of Ingushetia.
In 2004 he was appointed Dean of the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. In the same year, he was appointed rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael of God in Grozny, with the preservation of all previously assigned obediences.
By the day of Holy Easter in 2005 in the Cathedral of ap. Andrew the First-Called Stavropol was elevated to the rank of abbot. In 2010 he was awarded the right to wear a club.
In 2005, he became a member of the Public Council under the President of Ingushetia. On October 9, 2006, by decree of the President of the Chechen Republic, he was approved as a member of the Public Chamber of Chechnya. In March 2011, he was included in the working group on strengthening interethnic relations in the Chechen Republic.
In August 2011, he was transferred to and appointed assistant rector of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in the city of Murom, as well as the director of the Orthodox gymnasium in honor of St. Ilya Muromets.
In December 2011, he was appointed acting rector of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastery in Murom.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of June 7, 2012 () he was appointed to the post of rector (abbot) of the Transfiguration Monastery in Murom.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 26, 2012 () he was elected Bishop of Makhachkala and Grozny.
Bishop on January 18, 2013 in Moscow. January 27 at the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The services were led by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of March 19, 2014 () he was appointed hegumen of the Novo-Sinai Monastery in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Sunzhensky district of the Republic of Ingushetia.