Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn

Monastery and Ascetic Life

The synaxarion presents Barlaam's life at Khutyn as one of strenuous physical labor joined to prayer. He is described as supporting himself by cutting timber in the forest, chopping firewood, and tilling the soil, in keeping with the apostolic admonition that one unwilling to work should not eat. As his reputation for holiness spread, inhabitants of Novgorod came to share his struggles, and the gathering community required a church and monastic buildings.

The monastery he founded was dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord. Wikipedia notes that he first built a wooden chapel on the site before the larger foundation took shape. The tradition records that he was succeeded by a monk named Antony (Anthony), whom he nominated before his death.

Miracles and Clairvoyance

His life credits him with the gifts of miracle-working and clairvoyance. Among the episodes related in the tradition are his discernment of fishermen who had concealed part of their catch, and his intervention at executions, in which he is said to have obtained the release of one condemned man — who afterward became a monk — while permitting another's death, explaining that God wills the salvation of all but allows suffering for a greater purpose. He is also said to have restored to life a gravely ill child who had died while being brought to him.

The tradition further relates that in 1190 he prophesied an out-of-season frost that would destroy worms threatening the grain harvest, so that an anticipated famine was averted and an unusually abundant crop followed. Later accounts add that after his death he appeared to a sexton named Tarasi, warning of disasters threatening Novgorod.

Veneration and Relics

Barlaam's grave at Khutyn became a place of pilgrimage. The Serbian monk Pachomius is credited with recording his life, and his relics were enshrined in the fifteenth century; the year 1452 is given in some accounts. The Church commemorates him three times during the year — on November 6, the day of his repose; on the first Friday of the Apostles' Fast; and on the third Sunday after Pentecost, with the Synaxis of the Novgorod Saints — and he is also commemorated during the Proskomedia.