Vassian the Blind (Balashevich)

Venerable Vassian the Blind (in the world Vasily Balashevich, 1745-1827) was a schema-⁠hieromonk and elder of the Kyiv Caves Lavra. He was glorified locally in the Kyiv diocese by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 19 April 2016, and the service of glorification was held on 28 August 2016 in the Lavra; he is commemorated on 25 April (8 May), the day of his repose.

He was born in 1745 at Pohar, in the Starodub regiment, Chernigov province, into a poor family of townspeople. From childhood he was gentle and thoughtful, loved to go to church daily and to read the lives of the saints. At nineteen he wished to enter a monastery, but his parents urged him to marry, and in 1764 he did. His wife died after a few years, leaving him two daughters, Tatiana and Fekla. After his parents' death he sold what he had and moved with his daughters to Kyiv. Tatiana married, and Fekla entered the convent of the Ascension and of Saints Flor and Lavr, receiving the name Paisia. Then Vasily fulfilled his old desire. In 1793 he was received as a novice at Vydubychi Monastery and was made, after some years, steward of the Metropolitan's house in Kyiv.

On 21 June 1799 he was tonsured a monk with the name Vavila, and Metropolitan Gabriel (Banulescu-⁠Bodoni) appointed him treasurer of the Kyiv Theological Academy, the first holder of the post. He was ordained hierodeacon on 4 March 1800 and hieromonk on 22 July 1800. The students of the Academy, who regarded him as a seer, came to listen to him; he urged them to flee idleness and to seek in work a shield against the passions. Among his friends were Athanasy Galinsky, the future Archimandrite Avxenty, and the church composer A. L. Vedel.

In 1802, at the Kitaev Hermitage, he was tonsured into the great schema with the name Vassian, in honour of Venerable Vassian of Constantinople. He gave up the treasurer's post and withdrew to the hermitage, where he was confessor of the brethren. In the same year his sight began to fail, and in January 1807, blind, he was moved to the infirmary of the Caves Lavra, where his ministry as an elder began. By strict fasting and prayer he gained the gift of foresight. He was confessor of the Lavra's vicar, the future Archbishop Anthony Smirnitsky, who began nothing without his blessing. His counsel to him was not to be too strict with the brethren and to temper the severity of authority with gentleness.

His spiritual experience drew both simple pilgrims and members of the imperial family. On 1 June 1816 Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich, the future Emperor Nicholas I, visited him, and later that year Tsar Alexander I. According to tradition, the tsar entered the cell without notice and without revealing himself, but the elder recognised him. The tsar confessed to him and next day presented him with a pectoral cross set with diamonds, which the elder gave, before his death, to the Lavra's sacristy.

At the beginning of 1827 he fell gravely ill, shut himself in his cell and received only close disciples. He died on 25 April 1827. He was buried in the Lavra, on the north side of the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. On 28 August 2016, the feast of the Dormition by the new calendar, Metropolitan Onuphry served in the Lavra, before the cathedral, the rite of glorification for him and for Metropolitan Ioannikios (Rudnev, d. 1900).