Our Fathers among the Saints Guria, Archbishop of Kazan, and Barsanuphius, Bishop of Tver, the finding of whose holy relics we commemorate.
Saint Guria [Gury] was born Gregory Rugotin in the city of Radonezh of a poor boyar family. As a youth, he was sent to serve in the home of Prince Ivan Penkov. Gregory had a meek and compliant character. He loved to go often to the church of God to pray, and he prayed also at home; he carefully guarded his chastity, he fasted strictly; he loved also to give alms to the poor and was distinguished for the other Christian virtues as well. By his good character and integrity, his meekness and piety, and his Christian virtues, Gregory gained his master’s love, and was entrusted with the full management of his household. His fellow servants enviously slandered him to the Prince as having committed adultery with his wife. The Prince, believing the slanderers, commanded that Gregory be put to death; but his son prevailed upon him to spare Gregory, and having ascertained the slander, succeeded in saving Gregory from death. Nevertheless the Prince, overcome by malice, condemned the innocent Gregory to a deep dungeon, where he spent two years, tormented by hunger; every three days he was thrown a sheaf of oats and a little water. Gregory strengthened himself by bringing to mind the ancient Martyrs and considering that the dungeon had freed him from worldly temptations and cares and allowed him full freedom to prepare for eternity.
After two years, the compassionate Lord, seeing the good patience of His servant, with the invisible hand of His might opened the prison bars for him. Suddenly, Gregory saw light in the doorway of the prison. He became terrified, thinking it to be a demonic incursion, since those doors had not been opened for two years. He arose and began to pray. Again the light appeared in the doorway, even stronger than before. When Gregory touched the door with his hand, it opened at once. Gregory rendered thanks to the Lord, and walked out of it unnoticed by anyone, even though it was already day. He came to the Iosifovsky Dormition Monastery, where he was tonsured with the name Guria, and, for his exemplary monastic life, was later elected Abbot. Having been the Superior of this monastery for about nine years, he left the monastery due to illness, and for two years lived in retirement, spending his time in fasting and reflection on God. After this, Guria was sent to be Abbot of the Selizharov Monastery but remained here for no more than a year.
After Tsar Ivan the IV, also called The Terrible, conquered Kazan in 1552, Guria was elected its first Archbishop, and was consecrated on February 7, 1555. At his request two hieromonks were appointed as his assistants, one of whom was Barsanuphius, Abbot of Peshnosha.
As Archbishop, Saint Guria continued to lead a God-pleasing life: he fed the beggars and gave to the needy; he defended the poor, the widows, and the orphans, delivering them from various calamities. Adding labors to labors, he spent the night in prayer, and during the day, taught the knowledge of God and faith in the All-holy Trinity to the unbelieving, bringing many to Christ. A significant number of foreigners (mostly Tartars) converted to Christianity. His great labors, together with the frailty of his constitution, which in his youth had been adversely affected by his difficult imprisonment, finally undermined his health, though the illness of his body in no way lessened the pious fervor of his soul, and though unable to perform the divine services himself, he attended the sacred services performed by others, and continued to humble his flesh with fasting and abstinence. After struggling thus for three years, he sensed the approach of his departure to God, and called for Archimandrite Barsanuphius, from whom he received the Great Schema. He reposed on December 5, 1564.
Saint Barsanuphius was born John, the son of a priest named Basil, in Serpukhov, in the province of Moscow, and at an early age was taught reading and writing, and the Divine Scriptures. In his youth John was taken captive by Crimean Tartars, but accepted his captivity as God’s will, found all his consolation in prayer, and so impressed his captors with his diligence in work, unmurmuring submission, and good character and humility that they eased his burden and allowed him greater freedom. After three years his father ransomed him, but not before John had become fluent in the Tartar language.
John used his restored liberty to submit himself to the yoke of Christ, being tonsured with the monastic name of Barsanuphius in the Andronikov Monastery in Moscow. Because of his exemplary asceticism he was appointed Abbot of the Peshnosha Monastery of Saint Nicholas and Saint Methodius in 1544. He later was made an Archimandrite in Kazan, where he founded a monastery in honor of the Holy Transfiguration, where Archbishop Guria was later buried. He assisted Archbishop Guria in evangelizing the Moslem and pagan inhabitants of Kazan, being able to teach them in their own tongue and understanding their culture, and he converted and baptized many.
In 1567 Saint Barsanuphius was appointed Bishop of Tver, being consecrated by Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, who died a Martyr’s death in 1569 by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible whose reign of tyranny he had vigorously opposed. While continuing to lead an ascetical life and keep vigil all night in prayer, he undertook the labors of a shepherd into deep old age, at which point he returned to Kazan, received the Great Schema, and reposed in peace on April 11, 1576.
On October 4, 1596, thirty-two years after the death of Saint Guria and twenty after Saint Barsanuphius’s, the wooden church in which they were buried was replaced by one of stone. When their coffins were exhumed and opened, Saint Guria’s was full of sweet-smelling myrrh, and his relics and Saint Barsanuphius’s were found almost completely incorrupt. The recovery of their holy relics was performed by the Metropolitan of Moscow Hermogenes, who as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia suffered a Martyr’s death in 1611.
This account was abridged and edited from a translation by Holy Nativity Convent, Brookline, Massachusetts, in The True Vine issue #11, and is used by permission.
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