Fearing that the multitude of those who came to him would not burden the brethren of his monastery, he accepted the blessing from his abbot to go around all the monasteries of the Holy Mountain in order to work for the benefit of each of them, not for the sake of gold and silver, but for spiritual salvation, and he remained in such a feat for another three years. Then the desire came to him to return to his native land in order to establish a monastery there for the glory of the Mother of God, in Whom he had warm faith. Arseny began to ask the abbot for leave to his homeland, and he, filled with the spirit of clairvoyance, prophetically told him that the Lord would build through him a monastery in the northern country, which would be saved by his prayers from many demonic charms and superstitions.
The abbot fatherly blessed him with a double icon of the Lady with the Eternal Child on one side and the miraculous image of Spasov on the other; Moreover, he also gave him the cenobitic charter of the Holy Mountain and, releasing him, prayed over him like this: “God our father, look from the throne of Thy glory on Thy servant Arseny, may the grace of Thy Holy Spirit always rest on him and Thy blessing be with him.”
In 1393, Blessed Arseny returned to Veliky Novgorod, carrying with him the miraculous icon from the Holy Mountain. Here he appeared before Archbishop John, to whom he told everything that had happened to him on the Holy Mountain and asked for his blessing to create a monastery in the north in the name of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The bishop released him in peace - and Arseny with the icon of the Mother of God sailed to Lake Ladoga. Having been in the Valaam monastery, he decided to go into silence to more secluded places - and by the Providence of God, having reached the deserted island of Konevsky, he founded the Konevsky monastery, where he initially drove away the crafty spirits with their dreams and insurances from the ancient idolatry.
After the establishment of the monastery and the increase of the brethren, the Monk Arseny again went to the holy Mount Athos - this was already under the Novgorod Archbishop Simeon - and slowed down in his wanderings. Then there was a great scarcity in his monastery, so that the brethren, overcome by hunger, wanted to disperse. But one of the elders, named Joachim, adorned with piety and gray hair, ascended the mountain adjacent to the monastery, where the monk first labored, and prayed to the Heavenly nourisher Mother of God to send them their daily bread. After a long prayer, the elder dozed off, and through a subtle sleep the Mother of God appeared to him in heavenly glory. “Don’t grieve, elder,” She said in a quiet voice, “tell the brethren not to leave this place, for soon Arseny himself will come to you with an abundance of everything needed for the monastery. The next day, Arseny, indeed, sailed on two large ships and brought with him a lot of supplies.
After many years of exploits, in old age, he gave up his pure soul to the Lord on June 12, 1447, on the day of remembrance of the Monks Onuphrius and Peter of Athos, following whose example he retired to the Holy Mount Athos.
14
St. Niphon of Athos († 1330, commemorated June 14)
Our venerable father Nifont was born in an area called Argyrokastron, from a priest of the village of Lukovi. When he was ten years old, his father’s brother, who was ecclesiarch in the monastery of St. Nicholas, took him to his place to confirm him in the rules of strict Christian morality. The monastery of St. Nicholas was founded by Constantine Monomakh in a place now called Mesopotam. After accepting the boy into the monastery, his uncle first of all took care of teaching him to read and write, and then clothed him in a monastic image. The beginnings of education in the Holy Scriptures were so successful in the youth, and his unconditional obedience and modesty were so edifying that he was soon made a reader; upon reaching adulthood, he was awarded the priesthood.
With such Divine dignity, constantly practicing reading the Holy Scriptures and the lives of the saints, Niphon was so wounded by the love of God and the desire for the immaculate keeping of His holy commandments that he decided to leave everything and plunge into the deep desert, where, under all conditions of silence, he could completely devote himself to the one God. As a result of this, he withdrew from the monastery of St. Nicholas to Mount Heromerion, where an old man who had arrived from Mount Sinai was then laboring in solitude. There, under the guidance and instructions of an experienced Sinaite, young Niphon, rising from strength to strength, fully felt that the mountain desert of Geromerion was unsatisfactory for the impulses of his fiery soul, which longed for the most perfect silence and desert feats.
Therefore, suppressing in himself the feeling of attachment to his homeland, to relatives, friends and to everything that holds his thoughts in connection with the world, he went to the holy Mount Athos and, with the secret guidance of Providence, reached the cave of St. Peter of Athos, where the wonderful hermit Theognostus was then silent, to whom Niphon entrusted himself, as a child to his father and a slave to the ruler, hiding his priesthood before him. Thus, Niphon, like a novice, unconditionally obeyed his elder for three years. Finally, after this time, Theognostus, having somehow learned by chance that his novice had been invested with the rank of presbyterate, under no circumstances wanted to have him as a novice, especially since his exploits and labors seemed to him wonderful and edifying. No matter how much Niphon, for his part, convinced and begged the elder to continue to be his leader, explaining that this was necessary for him, as he was still imperfect in the experiences of hermit life, Theognostus, due to his extreme humility, did not agree to this.
Therefore, the Divine Niphon withdrew from him to the neighboring monastery of the great Basil and there he spent fourteen years in extreme silence, only once a week reinforcing his strength with a small amount of dry bread.
Meanwhile, a pestilence opened in the monastery: many brethren became its victims - so the abbot was forced to invite Saint Niphon to the monastery for the Divine rite. Thus, he spent three summers in the work of this great service. However, no matter how important this obedience was in itself, the heart’s attraction to complete silence did not give him peace. Unable to suppress this feeling and attraction within himself, he left from there to Vulevtirie - where the monastery of St. Anna is now - and there, in desert silence, he spent many years wandering without shelter or shelter, eating only grass and roots.
No matter how high, no matter how impartial the life of Nifont was, no matter how edifying for everyone, there were nevertheless envious people who presented him to the abbot of the sacred monastery as a seduced one. They strengthened the proof of their slander by the fact that the monk allegedly abhors bread, as a sinful and impermissible food, and therefore feeds on a desert potion. To find out the justice of the accusation, the abbot called the Monk Niphon to him and asked why he was behaving so strictly, disdaining even human food.
“The ancient fathers,” he said, “fed potion in the deserts, because there was no bread there, but here there is bread and other foods that should be consumed for the glory of God, with moderation, thus avoiding the satanic arrogance from immoderate and strict fasting.” Like a true novice, the monk humbly accepted the elder’s advice. Meanwhile, avoiding new troubles, he avoided the monastery of St. Anna and subsequently became close to the Monk Maxim Kavsokalivit, so that the latter, after many years of complicity with the wondrous Niphon, as proof of his sincere affection and friendship for him, gave him his own hut, or hut, and built himself another one near him.
But since many flocked to Saint Maximus for the miracles that he performed and for the sake of prophecies about the future, Saint Niphon, not tolerating the rumors, with the permission and advice of Saint Maximus, withdrew into a cave opposite the area of “Saint Christopher” and remained silent there. A little time passed when the monk Mark, who had a brother, came to him from his homeland to submit himself to his senile leadership. The saint received him with love and ordered him to build a kaliva for both himself and his brother.
- What are you doing, father? - objected the surprised Mark, - my brother is a layman and lives among his relatives.