Righteous Varlaam of Pinega, Vaga, and Shenkursk

Venerable Varlaam of Pinega, Vaga, and Shenkursk — in the world Vasily Stepanovich Svoyezemtsev — came from a noble Novgorod boyar family and was one of the wealthiest posadniks (magistrates) of Great Novgorod in the first half of the 15th century. He inherited vast lands in the Zavolochye region, along the Vaga and Pinega rivers, inhabited by pagan Chud tribes. Seeking to bring Christianity and settled life to these peoples, he founded a town on the Pinega River, and around 1426 established the Monastery of St. John the Theologian on the Vaga River near Shenkursk. In 1445 he led a Novgorod military campaign against the Yugra people. In old age, having set aside worldly affairs, he withdrew to the monastery he had founded, where in 1456 he was tonsured with the name Varlaam under its first abbot, Seraphim. He spent his final six years in strict monastic labor and prayer, reposing on June 19, 1462. He is venerated as one of the enlighteners and patrons of the Russian North.