The Righteous One

In ancient times there lived this righteous man and ascetic; little reliable information about him has survived, and his relics, too, have vanished to who knows where. Yet to this day one of the brightest and most beloved festivals among the people remains the "Day of Barnabas" (godina Varnavy), which is held every June in the modest district town of Varnavino, set on a high green bluff above the mirror-bright Vetluga River.[1]

Well-dressed Vetluga residents gather on Krasnaya Gora, commemorating the holy hermit with old songs and round dances, praying before the crosses of the recently built church and lighting candles before the icons that heal the soul. And so it has been for more than one century. Today "Varnava's Year" (Varnavina godina) is celebrated on June 24; the interregional festival-competition "Voice of the Vetluga" is timed to coincide with the commemoration day in Varnavino, and services are held in the restored wooden tent-roofed Nikolsky Church on Krasnaya Gora — an exact copy of the church of 1666, recreated from drawings of that period. The restoration of the Nikolsky Church on Krasnaya Gora began in 2019 under a design by the architect Viktor Koval, based on a construction plan by the architect Leonid Gornik; the wooden tent-roofed church is covered with wooden shingles.

On June 24, 2025, Metropolitan George of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas performed the Great Consecration of the restored Nikolsky Church on Krasnaya Gora — the celebrations were timed to mark the 580th anniversary of the repose of the Venerable Barnabas of Vetluga.[3][3][1] According to tradition and scant records, Barnabas came to the Vetluga Region, a wild forest land, from Veliky Ustyug, where he had been a priest in a church. The newcomer condemned himself to a hard life for the sake of the Christian faith, which he intended to spread in a wilderness not yet settled by man.

Warlike Cheremis appeared in the area and visited Barnabas more than once, but his humble appearance and kindness tamed their anger, and they left the fearless newcomer in peace. And what harm could come from him, when birds alighted on his palm and the master of the forests, the brown bear, did not touch him? In the protected "Old Book" (Vetkhaya kniga), and then in the "Handwritten Life of Barnabas, the Wonderworker of Vetluga," which disappeared under the Bolsheviks, it was written how the venerable father Barnabas settled "on the bank of the river on Krasnaya Gora in a wild wilderness, in which he lived for many years, laboring for God in psalm-singing and prayers, and fed on weeds and oak tops, for he had no bread, that wilderness being a hundred versts and more from human dwellings."

The time when Barnabas withdrew into the forests was the beginning of the 15th century, and he lived as a hermit for 28 years, having built himself a cell. Barnabas's hermit path on Krasnaya Gora began in 1417.[3] According to tradition, in 1439, shortly before settling on the Unzha River, the Venerable Macarius of Zheltovodsk came to Barnabas for guidance and instruction.[2] Things were uneasy on the borderlands of the Russian lands. Raids, bloody battles, and fires disrupted peaceful life and turned what had been built into ashes and dust. And, having gone into the Vetluga wilds, Barnabas hoped, through his ascetic life, tireless prayers, and miraculous healings of the infirm, to turn misfortune and calamity away from his native land, to attract good plowmen and bee-keepers to settle the unsettled places, and to establish a holy monastery on the Vetluga. This is how he is portrayed in the "Handwritten Life": "… Tall, adorned with comely gray hair and a moderately long beard, a priest in holy orders, very worthy in character, sweet-spoken in his words, and adorned with every spiritual virtue…"

After Barnabas's death, monks and disciples built two churches on Krasnaya Gora: one in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity and, over the elder's grave, one in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; they founded a monastery, called the Trinity Hermitage of Barnabas (Varnavina pustyn). In time, the district town of Varnavin grew up on the site of the Varnavin Hermitage, and the main church of the abolished monastery was turned into the town cathedral in the name of the Apostle Barnabas. The Trinity-Varnavin Monastery was abolished in 1764, after which the monastery churches and the adjoining settlement became the village of Varnavina Pustyn; in 1778, by decree of Catherine II, the village was transformed into the town of Varnavin.[3][2] The Venerable Barnabas died at a great age on June 11, 1445, and that day became the day of his church commemoration.[2] It was here, at the tomb of the Vetluga ascetic, that miraculous healings of the sick began to take place, and word of them spread throughout Rus. In 1638, Patriarch Joasaph also learned of the miracles. Pafnuty, the hegumen of the Zheltovodsk Monastery, sent by him to the Vetluga, confirmed the authenticity of the miracles.

The following year Barnabas was canonized and became one of the Russian saints. The life of the saint was written in 1639 by the monk of the Varnavin Hermitage, hieromonk Joseph (Lyadkin), who later became the chief administrator of the Moscow Printing House.[2] Pilgrims streamed to Barnabas's tomb, set up in the Nikolsky Church, from the Kostroma, Vyatka, Vologda, Nizhny Novgorod, and other lands. In 1914, at the insistence of parishioners, for the saint's anniversary the relics of the Venerable Barnabas were taken out from beneath the floor of the Trinity Cathedral and transferred to a silver reliquary.[3] Worshippers gathered in the church before June 11 (Old Style), the day of the Venerable's commemoration.

In 1908 the writer Mikhail Prishvin also visited here. This is what he saw: "It is growing dark in the wooden church… A little flame trembles above Barnabas's tomb. In an unbroken line, the faces of pilgrims bend over it and are lit by the red glow. The church is full. People sit on the floor with their knapsacks, waiting for the reading of the saint's life.

They have gathered from afar, tired, wet; all night until dawn they will fight off drowsiness. Someone in a black caftan with a large book approaches the flame and reads the life… The reading lasts all night. Long, long ago, such lives were read like this all over Rus, in all the churches. This is how ancient Rus was brought up." In the years when militant atheism was gaining strength, the churches in Varnavino were destroyed, and the relics of St. Barnabas of Vetluga were taken from the tomb and would surely have been destroyed had they not been carried off and secretly buried somewhere in the old cemetery by the last Varnavino priest, Pavel Megalinsky, who was shot in 1937. One must hope that the time will come for these incorrupt relics to appear.

Sources

  1. nne.ru — Barnabas's hermit path on Krasnaya Gora began in 1417.
  1. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Songs on Krasnaya Gora: How the Annual Varnavina Godina Festival Went (archive)
  2. nne.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Metropolia (archive)