November: Day 6: Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn

November: Day 6:
Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn

(Lessons From His Life:
a. We Must Love Our Neighbors and
b. Live As If We Are Preparing To Die Every Day)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn, celebrated today, was descended from wealthy Novgorodians. Even in his youth he felt drawn to the monastic life, avoided children's games, fasted and prayed a lot. His parents wanted to keep him from such a life. But he said to them: "I have read many holy books, and nowhere have I found that parents would advise against anything good for their children. Is not the Kingdom of Heaven, which I seek, more precious than all else?" Then his parents gave him complete freedom and soon they died. After this, Venerable Barlaam gave away almost all his property and went into the desert; then, for greater solitude, he settled in the forest, on the banks of the Volkhov, 10 versts from Novgorod, on a hill called Khutyn. The Saint's solitude did not last long: soon princes, boyars, monks and commoners learned of him and began to come to him for conversation, and he gave everyone the necessary instructions; and many wished to lead a life under his guidance and settled around him. Then a temple was built and cells around it. A monastery appeared. The Saint gave the rest of his property for the benefit of the monastery. He gave the monastery its charter. The charter prescribed to distribute alms to the poor, to feed and quench the thirst of all travelers, and in general to have Christian love for them.

During his life, Venerable Barlaam was granted the gift of miracle-working and clairvoyance. Once, seeing how the people wanted to throw a criminal into the Volkhov, the Saint asked for his release from execution. Another time, the relatives of a man condemned to drowning asked him to intercede for this condemned man, but he did not do this, and later explained that he had saved the first one, as one who gave hope for correction, but did not save the second one, as he was dying innocently and was to receive a martyr's crown for this. Once, during the Apostles' Fast, when Saint Barlaam was with the Archbishop of Novgorod, and the Archbishop ordered him to visit in a week, he answered: "I will come to your shrine on a sleigh." And indeed, in the month of June, to everyone's amazement and great confusion, such snow fell that it was necessary to travel on a sleigh. Everyone was afraid of the harm from this snow, but it turned out that the snow killed the worms in the fields and was thus a great blessing from God. Saint Barlaam died in 1192. In his dying instructions to his disciples, he said: "Live as if you are preparing to die every day." The relics of Saint Barlaam rest in the Khutyn Monastery. The Saint performed many miracles after his death - he healed the sick, in a vision he was seen praying for Russia during the attack of both Mehmed Giray in 1521 and the Poles in 1610, etc.

II. The life of Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn presents us with two lessons.

a) The first is that, following the example of the Saint, one must have a living and active love for one’s neighbors.

"By love everything is built, by love everything is sealed, by love everything stands," the Venerable Barlaam often said. And before his death he repeated to the brethren that their monastery would never be depleted in anything, if only they would have love among themselves. Because of his rare love for the monastery and its brethren, he gave it all of his rich estates that he owned in the world; because of his strong love for all the brothers, during his abbotship, the gates of his monastery were always open for strangers, the poor and the needy. According to his testament, and to this day, especially on the day of the memory of the Venerable Barlaam, November 6, a common meal is annually arranged in the Khutyn Monastery for all the poor and the strangers.

Yes, love, according to the word of Holy Scripture, as “the bond of all perfection” (Col. 3:14), as “the royal law” (James 11:8), as “the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 8:8), undoubtedly contains within itself the promise of life, both present and future. “Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him,” says Saint John the Theologian (1 John 4:12).

b) The second lesson we learn from the life of Venerable Barlaam is that we must, in his words, live as if we were preparing to die every day.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk speaks very instructively about this: “You see,” says this great saint, “that a wound-up clock runs ceaselessly, and whether we are asleep or awake, active or not active, it has ceaseless movement and approaches its limit. Such is our life – from birth to death it flows ceaselessly and diminishes; we rest or work, we are awake or sleep, we converse with someone or are silent, it ceaselessly completes its course and approaches its end; and it has already become closer to the end today than yesterday and the day before, of this hour than of the past. So imperceptibly our life shortens! Thus hours and minutes pass! And when the chain will end and the pendulum will stop striking, we do not know. God’s Providence has hidden this from us, so that we will always be ready for our departure, whenever our Lord God calls us to Himself. Blessed is he whom the Lord shall find watching (Luke 12:37). Cursed is he whom He shall find sunk in sinful sleep!"

This incident and reasoning teaches you, Christian:

1) that the time of our life is constantly passing,

2) that it is impossible to return the past,

3) that the past and the future are not ours, but only that which we now have,

4) that our end is unknown to us,

5) therefore, always, at every hour, at every minute, we must be ready for our departure, if you want to die blessedly,

6) from this it follows that a Christian must be in constant repentance, the feat of faith and piety,

7) what one wants to be at their departure, such they should try to be at all times of their life, because no one knows whether he will live until evening from the morning, and whether he will live until morning from the evening. We see that those who walked healthy in the morning, by evening lie lifeless on their deathbed: and those who fall asleep in the evening, do not get up in the morning and will sleep until the Archangel's trumpet.

“And what happens to others, the same thing can happen to you and me, for everyone is subject to all sorts of events” (St. Tikhon of Zadonsk).

III. Through the prayers of Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn, may God help us to imprint these holy rules of Christian life in our hearts!

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.