The Monk Makarii of Zhabynsk, Wonderworker of Belevsk
Commemorated on September 22 and January 22
The Monk Makarii
of Zhabynsk, Wonderworker of Belevsk, was born in the year 1539. In his
early years he was monasticised with the name Onuphrii, and in the year 1585 he
founded the Zhabynsk Vvedensk (Entry of Mother of God into the Temple)
monastery near the River Oka, not far from the city of Belev. In 1615 the
monastery was completely destroyed by Polish soldiers under the command of
Lisovski. Returning to the charred remains, the monk began to restore the
monastery. He again gathered the brethren, and in place of the wooden one there
was built a stone church in honour of the Vvedenie/Entry of the Most Holy Mother
of God into the Jerusalem Temple (Comm. 21 November), with a bell-tower at
the gates. The monk spent his life in austere monastic effort, suffering cold,
heat, hunger and thirst, as the monastery accounts relate. He often withdrew
into the thick of the forest, where he prayed to God in solitude. One time when
he was going along the forest pathway, he heard a faint moaning. He looked
around and saw reclining against a tree-trunk a napping Polishman, who in his
weariness was resting. Beside him was rolled up his sabre. He had strayed from
his detachment and had become lost in the forest. In a barely audible voice
this enemy, who quite possibly had been one of the destroyers of the monastery,
asked for a drink of water. Love and sympathy surged up within the monk. With a
prayer to the Lord he struck his staff about in the ground, and there gushed
forth a fresh spring of water, and he gave the dying man a drink.
When the monastery
had been restored both in its outward and inward life, the Monk Onuphrii
withdrew from the general monastic life, and having entrusted the guidance of
the brethren to one of his disciples, he took the Schema with the name Makarii.
For the place of his solitude he choose a spot along the upper tributary of the
River Zhabynka – "the treasured Zhabynets", about one verst
separating the mouth of the tributary and the banks of the River Oka.
The schemamonk
efforts of the Monk Makarii were concealed not only from the world, but also
from his beloved brethren. He died in 1623 at age 84, at the night hour when
the roosters start crowing, and he was buried on 22 January, the day in memory
of the Disciple Timothy, opposite the gates of the monastery, where afterwards
was built a church in his name.
In the Iconographic
Originals was preserved a description of the Monk Makarii in his last years: he
was grayed with a small beard, and atop the monastic ryasa he wore the schema
garb. Veneration of the Monk Makarii was established at the end XVII beginning
XVIII Centuries. His icons were written; by tradition, his relics rested
uncovered, but already in 1721 they were beneathe a crypt. In the XVIII Century
the monastery became desolate. The memory about his deeds and miracles was so
totally forgotten, that when during the construction of the Nikol'sk church in
1816 the undecayed relics of the monastery founder were uncovered, they began
to serve a general panikhida over them. The restoration of the memory of the
Monk Makarii of Belevsk is connected with the name of hegumen Jona, – who was
born on 22 January, the day of memory of the Monk Makarii, – and who began his
own monastic journey at the Optina monastery located not far from the Zhabynsk
monastery. In 1875 hegumen Jona became head of the Zhabynsk monastery. His
request for the restoration of the memory of the Monk Makarii was strengthened
by the petition of the Belevsk people, who through the centuries had preserved
faith in the sanctity of the saint. On 22 January 1888, after the long
interruption, there was again made solemn veneration of the Monk Makarii of
Zhabynsk. In 1889, at the place of burial of the saint, was built a church in
his name. Hegumen Jona, who at that time lived peacefully at the monastery and
actually participated in the construction, decided that together with the
construction work, the holy relics of the Monk Makarii would be uncovered. When
everything was on the point of readiness, the Monk Makarii appeared to both
participants in a dream and strictly warned them that they should not proceed
with their projected deed, or else there would be punishment. The memory of
this appearance was reverently preserved among the monks of the monastery. A
Service was compiled to the saint. The memory of the Monk Makarii of Zhabynsk
is venerated, besides 22 January, also on 22 September.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
