The Monk Peter of Athos, a Greek by birth, served as a commander in the imperial troops and lived in Constantinople. In 667, during the war with the Syrians, Saint Peter was captured and imprisoned in the fortress of the city of Samara on the Euphrates River.
For a long time he languished in prison and thought about what sins he had been punished by God for. Saint Peter remembered that he once had the intention of leaving the world and entering a monastery, but he never fulfilled it. He began to observe strict fasting in prison, pray fervently, and asked St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for intercession before God. Saint Nicholas appeared to Saint Peter in a dream and gave advice to call upon Saint Simeon the God-Receiver for help. Strengthening the prisoner in patience and hope, the saint once again appeared to him in a dream. For the third time he appeared together with Saint Simeon the God-Receiver in reality. Saint Simeon touched the chains of Saint Peter with his rod, and the iron melted like wax. The doors of the prison opened, and Saint Peter came out to freedom. Saint Simeon the God-Receiver became invisible, and Saint Nicholas escorted Saint Peter to the border of the Greek land. Having recalled the vow, Saint Nicholas also became invisible. To receive the monastic image at the tomb of the Apostle Peter, Saint Peter went to Rome.
Saint Nicholas did not leave him without his help: he appeared in a dream to the Pope and told about the circumstances of the release of Saint Peter from captivity, ordering the Pope to tonsure the former prisoner into monasticism.
The next day, with a crowd of people during the Divine Service, the Pope said loudly: “Peter, who came from the Greek land, whom St. Nicholas freed from prison in Samara, come to me.” Saint Peter appeared before the Pope, who tonsured him as a monk at the tomb of the Apostle Peter. The Pope taught Saint Peter the rules of monastic life and kept the monk with him. Then, with a blessing, he released Saint Peter to wherever God would deign to send him.
Saint Peter boarded a ship sailing east. The shipmen, who went ashore during a stop, asked Saint Peter to come and pray to one house, where the owner and all the household were lying sick. Saint Peter healed them with his prayer. In a dream, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to Saint Peter and indicated the place where he was to live until the end of his days - Holy Mount Athos. When the ship sailed past Athos, it stopped by itself. Saint Peter realized that at this place he must disembark, and he went ashore. This was in 681. The Monk Peter spent 53 years in the deserted places of the Holy Mountain, without seeing any people. His clothes decayed, and his hair and beard grew and covered his body instead of clothes.
At first, the Monk Peter was repeatedly subjected to demonic attacks. Trying to force the saint to leave the cave, the demons took the form of either armed warriors or ferocious animals and reptiles ready to tear the hermit to pieces. But with fervent prayer to God and the Mother of God, the Monk Peter defeated demonic attacks. Then the enemy began to act with cunning. Appearing under the guise of a youth sent to him from his home, he tearfully begged the monk to leave the desert and return to his home. The monk shed tears, but answered without hesitation: “The Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos brought me here, without Her permission I will not leave here.” Hearing the name of the Mother of God, the demon disappeared.
Seven years later, the demon appeared before the saint in the form of a bright angel and said that God commanded him to go into the world to enlighten and save people who needed his guidance. The experienced ascetic again replied that he would not leave the desert without the command of the Mother of God. The demon disappeared and no longer dared to approach the monk. The Mother of God appeared to St. Peter in a dream along with St. Nicholas and told the courageous hermit that every 40 days an Angel would bring him Heavenly manna. From that time on, the Monk Peter fasted for 40 days, and on the fortieth day he was strengthened by Heavenly manna, receiving strength for a further forty days of abstinence.
One day, a hunter, chasing a deer, saw a naked man, overgrown with hair and girded around his loins with leaves. He got scared and started running. The Monk Peter stopped him and told him about his life. The hunter asked permission to stay with him, but the saint sent him home. The Monk Peter gave the hunter a year for self-examination and forbade him to talk about his meeting with him.
A year later, the hunter returned with his brother, possessed by a demon, and other companions. When they entered the cave of the Monk Peter, they saw that he had already reposed before God. The hunter, with bitter weeping, told his companions about the life of St. Peter, and his brother, as soon as he touched the body of the saint, received healing. The Monk Peter died in 734. His holy relics were located on Mount Athos in the monastery of St. Clement. During the iconoclasm they were hidden, and in 969 they were transferred to the Thracian village of Photoki.
The name of the Venerable Peter of Athos is associated with the sacred covenant of the Mother of God about her earthly destiny - Holy Mount Athos, which remains in force to this day: “In Mount Athos there will be his rest, that is, My lot from My Son and God, given to Me, so that those who are absent from worldly rumors and embrace spiritual exploits according to the strength of their deeds, with faith and love from the soul calling on My name, there They spend their temporary life without sorrow, and those who are pleasing to God for the sake of their deeds will receive eternal life: for I love that place dearly and I want to increase the monastic rite there, and the mercy of My Son and God to those who have monasticism there will not be ruined forever, if they also keep the saving commandments; and I will spread them in the Mountain to the south and north, and they will prevail from world to world, and I will make their name praiseworthy in all the sunflowers and protect those who there will patiently strive in fasting" (About Holy Mount Athos - "Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate", 1974, No. 3-5, 8).
St. Arseny Konevsky († 1447, June 12)
Blessed Arseny came from the great Novgorod. His heart, inflamed with the love of Christ, prompted him to leave the world to seek the silent life; First, he retired to the monastery neighboring the great Novgorod, on Fox Mountain, and there, having completed the monastic experience, he tonsured his hair and became a perfect monk: all the brethren looked at him as a model of monastic life given to them from above.
The desire to visit the holy Mount Athos had long arisen in the soul of the Monk Arseny, and he took advantage of the coming to Novgorod of several Athonite monks. When these monks arrived, he fell with tears at the feet of the abbot and begged to be released. For a long time the abbot did not agree to his request, feeling what a deprivation it would cause for the monastery, but finally he could not help but yield to the tearful prayer of the zealous monk. Arseny joyfully set out on his journey with a fatherly blessing and safely reached the Holy Mountain, where he was lovingly received by Abbot John. The abbot ordered the stranger to strive in common labors with the brethren. Therefore, Arseny went through all the monastic services in order, starting with woodworking and baking bread, and performed every service with extreme humility and obedience, considering himself to be the worst of the brethren.
The abbot, having recognized the art of the Russian newcomer for forging copper vessels, occupied him preferentially with this handicraft, and in deep silence he forged vessels for the needs of the monastery, devoting the whole day to this, and spent the night in prayer, barely allowing himself little rest, for he was strong and courageous. He worked without compensation not only for his monastery, but also for other Svyatogorsk monasteries, for from everywhere they brought him copper for forging vessels, as soon as they heard about his art. It is not known in which monastery Arseny actually labored; however, it must be assumed that in Rusika, for it was the common refuge of all Russian newcomers.