Varsonofiy, Bishop of Tver, and Wonderworker of Kazan
April 11/24
Saint Varsanofiy, Bishop of Tver, Wonderworker of Kazan, was born around 1495 in the city of Serpukhov into a priest's family. At baptism, he was given the name Ivan, although other sources mention Vasiliy. Distinguished by his diligence and intelligence, he easily mastered literacy, learned to read the Psalter and church singing so well that he could not only read and sing himself but also help others.
In 1512, the Crimean Tatars, led by Ahmat Giray and Burnat Giray, launched a campaign against Ryazan, but "having failed to take the city of Ryazan," they made a quick and devastating raid along the banks of the Oka River. Among many others, seventeen-year-old Ivan was taken captive. The conditions of captivity were harsh, but prayer and contemplation of God provided comfort to his heart, a comfort he never felt in his parents' home. His love for God grew, as did his devotion to His holy will. In this state of mind, young Ivan worked diligently for the infidels, learning unconditional obedience, patience, and meekness. Initially involuntary, fasting became a deliberate act for him. The toilsome labors of captivity occupied all his daytime, and only at night could he devote time to prayer, which became a necessity for his soul. Trusting in the Lord, the future saint prayed and sang the psalms he remembered, living as a novice in a monastery, unobtrusively mastering obedience, meekness, and patience. Ivan slept very little, hardly touched food, and was noted for his diligence and gentleness, working without complaint and thus winning over the hardened hearts of the unbelievers, who, reluctantly recognizing his virtues, began to treat him more gently and leniently than others. Gradually, thanks to his extraordinary abilities, he mastered the Tatar language to such an extent that after two years, he could not only speak it fluently but also write in it. The captivity lasted three years. With great difficulty, his father, Priest Vasiliy, gathered the necessary amount and ransomed his son Ivan from Tatar captivity.
Blessed Ivan returned home, but his heart had forever cooled to the fleeting earthly joys and comforts. Following an unshakeable decision that had matured in his soul during captivity, he went to Moscow, where he took monastic vows at the Spassky Andronikov Monastery, pledging himself to chastity, obedience, and non-possession. The three years of captivity served as his novice training. Renouncing the world, a monk dies to it, hence he is given a new name. Death to the world is the birth into angelic service. The newly tonsured monk was named Varsanofiy. By a strict and godly life, Monk Varsanofiy excelled in the virtues of devotion and prayer. Saint Akakius, Bishop of Tver (1522–1567), a native younger brother of the venerable Joseph of Volokolamsk and a monk of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery, a good and pious archpastor endowed with the gift of foresight, visited the Andronikov Monastery and repeatedly predicted to Varsanofiy, then still a hierodeacon (as Saint Varsanofiy later recalled), that he would one day succeed Saint Akakius on the Tver episcopal throne.
The virtuous and pious life of Venerable Varsanofiy became known to Metropolitan Makarius of Moscow, who elevated Saint Varsanofiy to the rank of hegumen of the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Methodius Desert, founded in 1361 by a disciple of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, Venerable Methodius, 25 versts from Dmitrov (on the right bank of the Yakhroma River at its confluence with the Peshnosh River in the forest wilderness). In ancient times, this hermitage was called Nikola on the Pesnusha.
In 1553, on a pilgrimage (in gratitude for a miraculous deliverance from death) on his way to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Tsar Ivan the Terrible visited the Peshnoshsky monastery with his family. He noticed the experienced mentor of monastic life, who had been in captivity and was knowledgeable in the Tatar language and customs. Therefore, when a new diocese was opened in Kazan in 1555, along with Saint Gurias, the first Archbishop of Kazan, Saint Varsanofiy from the Peshnoshsky monastery was sent to Kazan as an archimandrite to establish a monastery there. On May 26, 1555, the primates of Kazan solemnly set out on their journey. The journey from Moscow via the rivers Moskva, O
ka, and Volga to Kazan lasted two months.
On Sunday, July 27, 1555, Bishop Gurias, together with Hegumen of Peshnosh Varsanofiy and Hegumen of the Assumption Staritsky Monastery German, arrived in Kazan. They were greeted with crosses and banners in the Kazan Annunciation Cathedral by the local clergy and populace. Along with Saint Varsanofiy, monks from Peshnosh: Tikhon, Theodorit, Job, Andronik, Sylvester, as well as Monk Simeon from the Andronikov Monastery, arrived in Kazan. In the following year, 1556, Venerable Varsanofiy fulfilled his assigned task and established the Transfiguration Monastery in the Kazan Kremlin. He consecrated the first warm stone church in the monastery in the name of Saint Nicholas the Warrior, and subsequently—the main church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In the charter of the monastery, written by Archimandrite Varsanofiy himself, he calls himself in the subscription "a sinful monk, who was the abbot at Peshnosh." Secretly from everyone, he continued to wear chains to mortify the flesh. The monastery soon became the center of spiritual life of the former Tatar capital. A few years later, the number of monks in it reached one hundred. At the will of Bishop Gurias, to whom he maintained complete obedience and filial love, he zealously engaged in the conversion of Muslims to the Christian faith. Knowledge of the Tatar language allowed him to establish close relations with the Tatars, and a thorough knowledge of the teachings of Muhammad, combined with his profound mind, made his denunciations of Islam irrefutable. His ability to heal diseases attracted the sick of all kinds, while illness itself predisposes the soul to all that is best and, consequently, to the acceptance of the Christian teaching.
On December 2, 1563, Saint Varsanofiy took the great schema, and on December 4, he buried his closest friend and mentor, Bishop Gurias, Archbishop of Kazan. After the death of Bishop Akakius of Tver (†1567), Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, summoned Saint Varsanofiy to Moscow and elevated him to the rank of Bishop of Tver.
Saint Varsanofiy was a true luminary for his flock, not merely with words, but with his entire being, he pointed out the salvific path of Christ. Despite his high episcopal rank, he continued to be a humble ascetic, as he had been in the Peshnoshsky hermitage and in Kazan. He spent nights in prayer, days in labors and cares, resting, he sewed skufias and gave them to monks and bishops, diligently healing the physical and spiritual ailments of those who turned to him.
It was a difficult time in which the Lord judged him to shepherd the flock of Tver. Troubles began for Russia then—Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who wisely and piously ruled Russia, became a terror and scourge for his subjects, instituting the so-called "oprichnina." Tver did not belong to the oprichnina and therefore did not enjoy the favor of the tsar. With horror and indignation, Saint Varsanofiy saw how his friend German, Archbishop of Kazan, once respected by the tsar, was summoned from Kazan to Moscow to be elevated to the rank of metropolitan, but after he reminded the tsar in gentle and meek words that he would answer at the divine judgment for his cruelties, he was exiled and died in confinement.
Many terrible events passed before the eyes of Saint Varsanofiy during the four years of his episcopal service. Deeply grieved for his flock, Saint Varsanofiy felt the weakness of old age, and retired in 1571 to the monastery he had founded in Kazan. He spent five years there in peace, in prayer and seclusion, where he took the great schema. When he could no longer walk to church due to frailty, his loving disciples helped him attend the house of God, knowing his love for divine services.
Saint Varsanofiy passed away on April 11, 1576, and was buried in the Transfiguration Monastery by Archbishop Tikhon of Kazan. In 1595, by the blessing of the Most Holy Patriarch Job (1588–1607), a new church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord was built in this monastery. During the construction of the church, the relics of the Kazan Wonderworkers Gurias and Varsanofiy were discovered. The discovery of the relics was documented by an eyewitness, Saint Hermogenes (future patriarch), at that time Archbishop of Kazan: "When, on October 4, we reached the graves of the holy fathers, they came to tell me, the humble one. Having brought the unbloody sacrifice to the Lord God with all the consecrated assembly and sung the panikhida, we went to the monastery and, coming to the place, bowed to the graves of the venerable fathers Gurias and Varsanofiy. Opening the grave, we saw something completely unexpected: the reliquary of the saint was full of fragrant myrrh, and the relics of Saint Gurias floated like a sponge above the myrrh; not a single part was submerged. God endowed his honorable and much-suffering body with incorruption, as all now see... I, unworthy, with my sinful hand touched the holy body, felt the robes in which he was buried, and they were very strong. I tried to pull his mantle and other burial clothes with force, and they seemed stronger than new ones. At the head of the venerable Gurias lay a Greek skufia knitted, which, according to the disciples of Saint Varsanofiy, was made by the venerable Varsanofiy for Gurias and after the death of the saint placed unfinished at the head of his grave. We collectively examined this skufia and, taking a strand from it, could barely break it because it was stronger than new. We transferred the fragrant myrrh to a new vessel, and Orthodox Christians, using that myrrh, constantly received healings. Then we opened the reliquary of Varsanofiy and saw that his relics too were honored by God with incorruption... in which we assured ourselves, transferring the holy and miraculous relics of both with our own hands with Archimandrite Arsenius from the graves into coffins. Marveling at the unspeakable human-loving nature of God, we sang the funeral hymns over the venerable fathers with tears and meekness and placed them above the ground so that all who come may see them and, marveling, glorify God."
In the "Icon Painting Manual," a description of the image of Saint Varsanofiy is given: "With the likeness of a superimposed beard, like Gurias' (and the beard of Saint Gurias—like that of Basil of Caesarea), split at the end, a bishop's robe, omophorion, and Gospel." The lives of the holy wonderworkers Gurias and Varsanofiy were compiled by Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes.