Vissarion Tolmachev and Varsonofy Vavilov

Vissarion Tolmachev and Varsonofy Vavilov were two Russian ascetics, the founders of the Russian Skete of St Andrew on Athos. Vissarion was born in 1808 into a Moscow merchant family and reposed in 1862. They are venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Vasily in the world, Vissarion, the son of Maxim and Mavra Tolmachev, helped in trade but found time for Holy Scripture and books of salvation. Together with another Vasily (Vavilov), a spiritual brother, he long hid his name, until they revealed the secret to their elder, the schemamonk Serapion, at the Beloberezh monastery near Bryansk. They then set out for Athos, stopping at Kiev and Constantinople. On Athos they lived under the guidance of the confessor Arsenius and received the schema: Vissarion, with Charalampos as adoptive father, and Vasily Vavilov with the name Varsonofy. Because of disagreements in the skete of St Elias, between Little Russians and Great Russians, and with Arsenius's blessing, they sought a new settlement. In 1841 they bought the Serai cell, which they rebuilt, and from which the Skete of St Andrew grew. Vissarion died in 1862; on the day and hour of his death several hermits of Athos learned of it in a wonderful way.