Vassian II of Rostov

Holy Hierarch Vassian II of Rostov, born Sanin, was Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl from 1506 to 1515. He was the younger brother of Venerable Joseph of Volokolamsk and one of the defenders of common monastic life and of Orthodoxy in the struggle against the heresy of the Judaizers.

Youth and the monastery

He came from the family of a small landowner of the Volokolamsk region, I. G. Sanin, who died between 1475 and 1479. From his youth he lived beside his brother Joseph. He was tonsured by Venerable Paphnutius of Borovsk (died 1477) and then was entrusted for spiritual guidance, it seems, to Joseph. When Joseph wanted to introduce the common-⁠life rule in the monastery of Paphnutius, the brethren resisted, and Joseph left with a few monks, among them Vassian, who supported him. They then lived at the monastery that Joseph founded at Volokolamsk, where the brothers parted; later Vassian visited the abbot there several times.

The parting of the two is known from a letter of Joseph to his brother, from the time of Metropolitan Zosima (1491-1494), in which he called him to the common struggle against the heresy of the Judaizers. It shows that Vassian spoke in Moscow about the heretics with Bishop Nifont of Suzdal and with Grand Prince Ivan III. In the capital he also learned of the wonderful help given by the holy martyr Nikita to a villager, a story preserved in the Paterikon of the Joseph-⁠Volokolamsk monastery.

Abbot and archbishop

By 1502 at the latest, when the patrons of the heretics at court lost their influence, Vassian was made abbot of the Simonov monastery of the New Dormition. In July 1502 he received from Ivan III a new charter for the monastery's estates. He led it for four years and obtained grants also from princes close to Joseph, Yuri Ivanovich of Dmitrov and Ivan Borisovich of Ruza. His nephew, the scribe and copyist Dosifei Toporkov, also lived in the monastery.

On 18 January 1506 he was consecrated Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslavl in Moscow by Metropolitan Simon. Before leaving he discussed the affairs of the diocese with the metropolitan and the grand prince. During his tenure the new Dormition cathedral was built at Rostov. He went to Moscow several times and supported his brother, as Joseph's writings show. When in 1509 a council judged the conflict between Joseph and Archbishop Serapion of Novgorod, who was deposed, Vassian asked Serapion, on the grand prince's order, why he had excommunicated Joseph. The Life of Saint Serapion puts the latter's fall down to Vassian's influence over the metropolitan, while Joseph says the main accuser was Abbot Nil. On 3 August 1511 Vassian presided at the enthronement of the new metropolitan, Barlaam.

Repose and writings

He reposed on 28 August 1515 in Moscow, at the court of the bishops of Rostov in Dorogomilovo, and was buried in the Dormition cathedral at Rostov; the place of the grave has been lost. In the memorial book of the Joseph-⁠Volokolamsk monastery his memory is noted under 28 August, for the monastery had received from him a gift of 730 rubles.

He wrote the Life of Venerable Paphnutius of Borovsk, preserved in two versions, one of them included by Saint Macarius in the May volume of the Great Menaion. The work is detailed, rests on the accounts of Joseph and of other disciples of Paphnutius, Innocent and Isaiah, and holds one of the earliest mentions of the icon painter Dionisy, who painted the monastery church. The 1545 inventory of the Volokolamsk monastery names manuscripts copied or owned by him: a Psalter, a miscellany, an Irmologion. He was also the addressee of a letter from Nikolai Bulev, the Catholic physician of Basil III, urging a union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Neither the letter nor Vassian's reply survives; only an anonymous reply to Bulev is known.