Varnava of Gethsemane (secular name Vasily Ilyich Merkulov; 24 January 1831, the village of Prudishchi, Venyov Uyezd, Tula Governorate — 1906) was a hieromonk of the Gethsemane Skete of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, a popular spiritual father at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, and the founder of the Iversko-Vyksunsky convent for women in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and is venerated as a saint (venerable).[1]
Origins and childhood
He was born to the serf family of Ilya and Daria Merkulov, known among fellow villagers for their diligence, meekness, and piety. At baptism he was named Vasily in honor of St. Basil the Great. The future elder's mother later took the great schema at the convent he founded. Church tradition preserves accounts of miraculous deliverances in Vasily's childhood: as a four-year-old boy he emerged unharmed after falling under the wheels of a loaded carriage, and after falling from a stove he miraculously recovered overnight.[1]
Spiritual fatherhood
Vasily took monastic vows under the name Varnava ("son of consolation") and took up the labor of spiritual fatherhood at the age of thirty. By his mature years, as many as five hundred people a day would come to him — people of all social ranks, from the emperor himself to peasants and factory workers. Contemporaries noted his perceptiveness, love, and good judgment; from the ceaseless stream of petitioners the elder often lost his voice, yet remained of good spirit. Besides laypeople, he also cared for monastics — both the brethren of the skete and the sisters of the Iversko-Vyksunsky convent he had founded, which he organized after the model of Diveyevo's Convent of St. Seraphim. The sisters called him their "provider"; when the elder could not visit in person, he wrote them numerous letters.[1]
The Iversko-Vyksunsky convent
The Iveron Convent for women in Vyksa, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, was founded by Varnava of Gethsemane after the model of the Diveyevo convent. The elder maintained ties with the convent until the end of his life. A portion of his relics is kept at the convent and today remains one of its principal sacred treasures.[1] According to the convent's chronicle, at the end of 1863 Hieromonk Varnava arrived in Vyksa at the request of local merchants and chose a site in the forest near the village for an almshouse, out of which by the autumn of 1864 grew a women's community of twelve; on 25 May 1865 the elder sent the community an icon of the Mother of God, the "Iveron", from which the convent took its name.[2] Along with the portion of his relics, the convent also keeps the elder's personal epitrachelion.[2]
Glorification
Hieromonk Varnava died in 1906. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a venerable saint; his feast day is included in the church calendar. The Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis honors him as the heavenly patron of the Iversko-Vyksunsky convent.[1]