Житие преподобного отца нашего Виссариона

The great Vissarion among our fathers was born and raised in Egypt; from his youth he loved God, and the light of God's grace shone in his heart. He kept himself clean from all sinful filth, trying not to discredit the spiritual clothing that he received at holy baptism. Saint Bessarion undertook a journey to the holy places in Jerusalem; here he saw the Monk Gerasim, who lived a fasting and desert life near the Jordan River, whom a lion served. He also saw many other ascetics who lived there in different places, who subsequently shone with their virtues; Conversing with them, Saint Vissarion received much benefit for his soul. Returning to his fatherland, Vissarion acquired a spiritual father in the person of Isidore of Pelusiot; coming to him often, he learned in virtue and was encouraged to a strict life; Finally, having distributed all his property left after his parents to the poor and monasteries, Vissarion renounced the world and took monastic vows. Having retired to a deserted place, Vissarion took a vow of silence; exhausting himself with numerous labors and mortifying his flesh with fasting deeds, he, being in the flesh, became like the disembodied. His fast was unprecedented: sometimes he did not eat anything for a whole week, and sometimes he remained without food or drink for 40 days. Once, standing in one open place in the middle of thorns and raising his hands and eyes to the sky, turning his mind there too, he spent 40 days and nights in prayer, standing motionless. During these forty days, he did not move from his place, did not taste anything, did not say anything to anyone, did not take a nap, did not fall into exhaustion from natural weakness, did not think about anything earthly with his mind, but all, like the disembodied, directed his spiritual eyes to God. For this, the saint was granted great grace from God: he was given the gift of working miracles, so that he was like the ancient holy prophets. Thus, he became like Moses: just as Moses once, with a tree indicated to him by God, turned bitter water in the desert into tasty water in order to give drink to thirsty Israel (Ex. 17:6), so the Monk Vissarion, with prayer and the sign of the cross, sweetened the bitterness of sea water in order to give drink to his disciple, who was exhausted from thirst, namely: when the saint and his disciple walked along the deserted seashore, the disciple became tired from the intense heat and, feeling very thirsty, said to the saint: The monk, having made a prayer and made the sign of the cross over the sea, said: - In the name of the Lord, draw and drink. The student drew water from the sea into a small vessel that he carried with him; Having tasted the water, the student found it very tasty 3664 and cool, as if flowing from a living spring; Having drunk enough and cooled down, the student took more water into the vessel for the road. Noticing this, the elder said to the disciple: - Why did you fill the vessel with water? - Forgive me, father! I took water on the road so as not to be thirsty again. – God, present in this place, is present everywhere and, both here and in another place, He can give tasty water to the thirsty. That student's name was Dula. The Monk Vissarion was likened to Joshua: just as he, when defeating the Amorites 3665, held back the movement of the sun (Joshua 10:12-13), so did this saint, namely: when he walked with his disciple to an old man, the sun was leaning towards the west, but the path was still long; then the elder turned to God, praying like this: “I ask You, Lord, command the sun to stop until I come to Your servant.” And this is what happened: the sun did not set until the monk came to that old man. He was like Saint Vissarion and the prophet of God Elijah. Thus, during a drought, he brought abundant rain from heaven to earth (1 Kings 18:1–46); This very thing was done not once or twice, but many times by the monk. Also to Elisha: just as he, having divided the water with Elijah’s cloak, crossed the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:14-15), so this one turned the water into a dry path with his prayer and walked on top of the water: he crossed the great Nile River as if on dry ground, and wherever rivers came across his path, he crossed them as if on dry ground. One day, when the monk was in the monastery, a demon-possessed man was brought into the church; They prayed for him in church, so that he would get rid of the unclean spirit; but the demon did not come out of him, for he was very fierce. And the clerics said to each other: - What should we do with this demoniac? “No one can cast out this demon except Father Vissarion, but if we ask him about this, he will not come to the church; therefore, we will do this: the next day in the morning he will come to the church first, but we will arrive before him and in his place we will seat the demoniac; then we will say to the elder: wake up the sleeping one. When the monk entered the church, he noticed a man sitting in his place. Not wanting to drive him away from here, he stood next to him. As soon as they began to read the church rule, the clergy said to the elder: Vissarion, approaching the man, pushed him and said: And immediately the demon, driven away by the word of the saint, came out of that man; he stood up and began to thank God for delivering him from his demonic possession; From that time on, the man became completely healthy. Thus, the clergy prompted the saint to perform a miracle of expelling a demon, for this reverend father did not want to openly perform miracles, so as not to be glorified by people; Being humble and considering himself a sinner, he avoided human praise. It happened that one brother in the monastery fell into some kind of sin, why the priest ordered him to leave the church, as unworthy to be in communion with the brethren; The Monk Vissarion, getting up, went out together with the sinner, saying: Such was the humility of Saint Vissarion. His disciples report about him that for 40 years he did not lie down on his bed to rest; he allowed himself to fall asleep only for a short time, and indulged in sleep either standing or sitting. The monk often exhorted his disciples to stay awake and beware of enemy temptations in every possible way. He said: – A monk should be like an eye, like the Cherubim and Seraphim; and if someone lives peacefully, without temptations, he needs to watch even more and humble himself before God, so that somehow, having become proud, he does not fall into any greater sin; for, due to pride, many fell into war with the devil; sometimes God, for the sake of our weakness, does not send us trials, so that we do not perish completely. The life of this holy father was similar to the life of a bird of heaven, for he never acquired anything earthly, did not have his own cell, or any shelter; he wandered through the desert, moving from place to place: he walked through mountains and forests like a lost traveler; He did not care at all about his bodily needs; he did not care about food or clothing; on his body he wore the poorest clothing, barely covering his nakedness. Despite the fact that he was scorched by the heat of the sun during the day and cold at night, he rarely went under the roof; he walked through the mountains like a bird, seeking solitude, raising his mind to the one God and fixing his thoughts only on Him Alone. Tears constantly came from his eyes, frequent sighs were heard from the depths of his heart, for he spent all the days of his life in tears, always crying and sobbing. Having reached a very old age, he reposed into eternal life 3666 and passed from weeping to eternal rejoicing with all the saints in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom glory goes forever. Amen. Having imitated the venerable powers from above, you lived your life in the image of birds, placing it in temporary oblivion, with an unceasing desire to attract the heavenly goodness of Christ the King, until you reached Vissarion: pray unceasingly for all of us. As you know, the water in the seas is usually salty. The Amorites are one of the pagan tribes that inhabited the land of Canaan. Amorites, translated from Hebrew means “inhabitants of high places”; they are contrasted with the Perizzites - “inhabitants of the lowlands.” Shortly before the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, the Amorites captured the eastern Jordanian region, which was very fertile. Joshua fought the Amorites and defeated five Amorite kings (Joshua 10:5–11). The death of the Monk Vissarion followed at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century. You might be interested in: