Vassian of Tiksna

Saint Vassian of Tiksna (died 12 September 1624) was a married peasant from the Totma district who left his family for monastic life and lived thirty years in silent struggle, secretly burdened with iron chains. His veneration began after the plague of 1647. He is commemorated on 12 (25) September.

Life

He was born in the village of Burtsevo, in the parish of the Transfiguration at Strelitsa, Totma district, Vologda province, in a peasant family, and at baptism he received the name Basil. He was married and had two sons. In winter he worked as a tailor, going about the neighboring villages. Little by little he resolved to leave life in the world and live for God, and one night he left home in secret.

He came to a place beside Lake Semenkovo, between the rivers Tiksna and Vopra, where stood the churches of the Transfiguration and of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (today the village of Pogorelovo, Totma district). The place, on a steep height, pleased him greatly, but Basil did not dare settle there and went on to Totma, to the Spaso-⁠Sumorin monastery, founded by Theodosius of Totma. The abbot, Hieromonk Theraponte, tonsured him a monk with the name Vassian. After some years Vassian asked the abbot to let him leave the monastery to live in solitude on the Tiksna. After praying at the tomb of Saint Theodosius, the elder Theraponte blessed him on his new way with an icon of the Holy Trinity.

In 1594, having come to the Tiksna, he obtained from the head of the local churches, Nestor Andreev, from the clergy and from the parishioners permission to build a small cell not far from the church. The peasants agreed to build it, on the church cemetery, twenty fathoms from the church. Vassian fasted constantly, slept on the bare floor or spent whole nights in prayer, and ate what the parishioners brought him. On one of the visits of his spiritual father, the elder Theraponte, he asked his blessing to wear chains. He put chains on his shoulders, girded himself with an iron hoop, put shackles on his hands and feet and a heavy iron cap on his head. All the iron was hidden beneath his monastic garment. For thirty years the saint carried this labor in seclusion, and no one except his confessor knew with what weights he humbled his body. Having reached deep old age, he died on 12 September 1624.

Miracles and veneration

The people round about soon set up a chapel over his grave and placed his chains on the tomb. The veneration of Saint Vassian began after the plague of 1647, when people and animals were dying suddenly. The governor of Totma, Alexei Bolonin, wrote about this to the tsar. By order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, cordons were set up around the Tiksna and no one was allowed to pass through that region.

Moscow merchants traveling to Arkhangelsk suffered losses from the delay, and at their request the tsar sent to the Tiksna the nobleman Ioann Akinegrov. Entering the chapel, he saw all the iron chains of Saint Vassian. The official was greatly amazed at the height of the saint's labors, and then ordered all the inhabitants to gather for a service of supplication. After the prayer the plague ceased. Other miracles also took place at the tomb.

In 1694 a monastic community arose in honor of the Life-⁠Giving Trinity. The first abbot was Hieromonk Protasius (in the world Prokhor) of the Spaso-⁠Sumorin monastery, who built the stone church of the Trinity and consecrated it in 1698. In it, beneath the floor, lay the relics of Saint Vassian. The old life was written by Abbot Joseph in 1745 and records twenty-⁠nine miracles.