Bartholomew of Simonov

Holy Venerable Bartholomew of Simonov, builder, was appointed in 1436 builder of the Simonov Monastery, in the time of Grand Prince Basil Dmitrievich, and died in 1442. He is remembered together with Venerable Ignatius, the icon painter of the monastery and fellow ascetic of Venerable Cyril of Beloozero, and Venerable John, the cellarer, a monk of the same monastery. They are buried in the Simonov Monastery.

Of them speaks Venerable Joseph of Volokolamsk, in his writing on the fathers of the monasteries of the Russian land. He relates, from the words of the elder Spyridon, formerly abbot of the Monastery of Saint Sergius, that after Theodore, head of Simonov, left for the see of Rostov, and then Archimandrite Cyril left for Beloozero, archimandrites came who changed some customs and rules of the blessed Theodore and Cyril. The custom of the monastery was that the brethren did not eat or drink in their cells, did not go out of the monastery without the blessing of the head, that no boys lived in the monastery, and that everything was done according to the testimony of the Scriptures and the tradition of common life. The blessed Bartholomew, with the elders of that time, among them John called Zlatyi and Ignatius the icon painter and the young Jonas, who later became metropolitan, seeing the customs changed and good order cast aside, did not keep silent, but opposed disorder and disturbance, and suffered much grief from the archimandrites of that time. Bartholomew, to whom the stewardship of the monastery had been entrusted by Prince Basil Dmitrievich, cared unceasingly for the building up of the monastery, first the spiritual building and then the bodily; he went round everything, the refectory, kitchen, bakery, courts and cells, and what he saw not done according to custom he first spoke of gently and with entreaty, and those who would not stop he stopped and drove from the monastery. For many years he struggled so, never gave himself rest, although he was lame in one foot, and the brethren who suffered with him made everything in that monastery orderly, gentle and peaceful. Therefore Christ did not forget his labours, and after many years from his repose showed him to a pious man of good birth standing in the church at the place where he used to pray, as He also showed the Holy Martyr Febronia and Saint Basil, disciple of Theodosius the Great.

News of the strict life of the champions of piety Bartholomew, Ignatius and John is also found in the chronicles that tell of the life of Saint Jonas, who in his youth struggled at Simonov. From them we learn that for their zeal and piety they had no small afflictions, yet precisely for this piety and keeping of the monastic rule handed down to them from the disciples of Saint Sergius, Theodore and Cyril, the venerable monks were honoured among the people of God.

He is commemorated on 5 September (a movable date) in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.