THE LIFE OF St. Nicodemus of Kozha Lake

THE LIFE OF
St. Nicodemus of Kozha Lake
ANCHORITE OF THE ARCTIC TUNDRA1

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1 Translated from Russian Pilgrim, 1894, nos. 23, 25, 27, with additions from Pravoslavny Sobesednik, published by the Kazan Theological Academy, 1858, and the Lives of Saints by Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov, St. Petersburg, 1892-1900, volumes for May, June, July and December.


Commemorated July 3.


ST. NICODEMUS OF KOZHA LAKE

TROPARION, TONE 1

THOU DIDST COME from the reigning city of Moscow and the great monasteries which are there,+ and being guided by the Providence of the Divine Mind thou didst strive towards the lands by the sea.+ Thou didst settle in the wilderness,+ avoiding worldly tumult and being armed with the power of the Holy Spirit,+ banishing thine enemies by the weapon of the Cross,+ perfecting thy life by fasting and unceasing prayer,+ zealously imitating the great Fathers Anthony and Onuphrius+ and Paul of Thebes.+ Pray with them to the Lord, O Father Nicodemus,+ that our souls may be saved.


SAINT NICODEMUS was born in the village of Ivankova, near the city of Rostov, in the middle of the 16th century. In holy Baptism he was called Nicetas. His parents were wealthy and pious peasants. Nicetas was brought up in the spirit of Christian piety, and when he grew old enough he began to help his father with farm labors, and often shepherded a flock in the field. Once while he was in the field he heard a voice saying, "Nicodemus! Nicodemus!" The boy looked around, but seeing nothing he understood that this was a Divine voice addressed to him, and he became frightened. Returning home, he told everything to his parents, and they understood that the voice signified the Divine calling of their son to monasticism; and thus they explained it to him. But Nicetas at this time was only twelve years old, and so he did not immediately leave his parents to fulfill his calling, but rather, placing all his trust in God's will, he remained with them and lived in obedience to them until their death, which occurred soon thereafter.

Having buried his parents, Nicetas set out for the city of Yaroslavl, where he lived for a long time. Here he learned to forge nails and thus earn his living. This occupation gave him more income than he needed for the satisfaction of his limited needs, and thus, rejoicing, he gave all beyond what he needed as alms to the poor. He passed his life in untiring love of labor, and fervently attended God's temple, praying warmly, remembering the voice in the field and entreating that its meaning might be made known to him, which soon, indeed, came to pass.

From Yaroslavl Nicetas moved to Moscow, where he began to work with a certain man named Tveryanin, whose wife was an evil and adulterous woman. The pious life of the two friends, their frequent conversations which were foreign to all immodesty, and their almost constant spending of time at labor, did not please this evil woman. So as to be delivered from all this, she resolved to kill her husband. With this in mind, she made a pudding and, after putting poison in it, offered it at dinner to her husband and Nicetas, who was with them at that time. The two suspected nothing and ate. After dinner Tveryanin immediately died, and Nicetas, even while remaining alive, began to suffer pains in the stomach. This affliction so exhausted Nicetas that he could no longer work alone, and he decided to sell his handiwork and go to another place,

When he went out with this purpose in mind, there came up to him someone in rags, asking: "Nicetas, why are you sick and what has happened to you? Tell me everything without hesitation." Nicetas related everything to him, just as it had happened. To this the unknown one replied: "Come, child Nicetas, at the sixth hour of the day, to the slope of the Protection Cathedral; there you will see me, and I will give you something to drink. The prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God will help you, and you will be healed." When Nicetas, at the assigned hour, came to the Protection Cathedral, the unknown one came out to meet him with a small vessel; giving him this vessel, he commanded Nicetas to make the sign of the Cross and drink of it. When Nicetas had drunk, the unknown one who was in reality St. Basil, the fool for Christ's sake of Moscow1 – vanished from his sight, and Nicetas felt himself completely well.

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1 +1552, Commemorated on August 2.


AFTER THIS MIRACULOUS healing, Nicetas began to ask himself whether it were not the time at last to dedicate his life, which God had s0 long preserved, entirely to His service, and thus to fulfill the calling of his childhood. To answer this question, Nicetas went to Kulishki, where the clairvoyant Elder Elias lived and gave soul-saving counsel. He had scarcely reached the cell of the Elder when the latter, who was surrounded by a great crowd of people, cried out prophetically to him: "From where has the desert-dweller of Khozyug come here?" Thus he answered the secret thought of the future ascetic. All doubt and wavering now vanished from his soul, Nicetas immediately sold all that he had, gave the money to the poor, and coming to the Chudov monastery in Moscow, entreated the Archimandrite Paphnutius to receive him into the brotherhood and give him the monastic vows. Paphnutius received the meek laborer with love, placing upon him a forty-day fast and other obediences. When Nicetas had fulfilled everything carefully, with meekness and obedience, studying at the same time the Divine Scripture, Paphnutius clothed him in the Angelic habit and called him Nicodemus, in honor of St. Nicodemus the prosphora-baker of the Kiev Caves, on whose feast day the tonsure was performed, on October 31, 1595. And so the prophecy of the voice in the field, which had called Nicetas by the name of Nicodemus, was fulfilled.


STS. ADRIAN AND THERAPONTES OF MONZA and STS. SERAPION AND NIKODEMOS OF KOZHA LAKE


St. Nicodemus spent eleven years in the Chudov monastery under the guidance of the intelligent and loving instructor, Archimandrite Paphnutius. This Paphnutius was a very spiritual man who had been a monk in the desert monastery of St. Paul of Obnora, where he had had a striking spiritual experience that changed the whole course of his life, as well as that of his close friend and fellow ascetic, St. Adrian of Monza.1 Paphnutius knew that the blessed Adrian had had a mysterious dream in his youth, in which he was shown a certain holy place, a hermitage with a church between two rivers, which was fore-ordained to be the place of his ascetic labors. The two friends prayed fervently to God to be worthy to find this place, the secret of which was known to no one but them. One night Paphnutius beheld an unusual light in the east. as if it were dawn, and he saw a church and crosses in this dazzling light; this was not in a dream, but in reality. The next night he had scarcely prayed and lain down to sleep when there appeared to him an unknown man who said: "Send your friend Adrian to search for a new monastery on the very place which you have seen in the light of the dawn to the east, A holy man will appear there." And he added: "But that place is not designated for you." When Paphnutius informed St, Adrian of this, the latter set out to look for it; and he did indeed find and recognize the holy place on the Monza River.

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2 +1619, May 5.


The one who had appeared to Paphnutius as an Angel-like announcer of heavenly decrees was the great St. Therapontes of Monza,1 a secret disciple of St. Basil, the fool for Christ of Moscow, a desert-dweller and wonderworker himself. Having reached spiritual purity, he saw in the light of God's grace the humble wish of the two holy friends, had compassion on them, and mystically came to their aid, first by indicating to them the place chosen by God for His laborers, and then moving to the Monza River hermitage himself, as an unknown wandering pilgrim, to help St. Adrian to establish his community.

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1 +1599. Dec. 12.


Hardly had St. Adrian moved to the Monza River when, by a royal decree, Paphnutius was made Archimandrite of the Chudov monastery and was separated from his beloved desert, in order to be like a leaven in the world, increasing the love for the desert in other seekers of God, St. Nicodemus was one of those he inspired.

In the Chudov monastery St. Nicodemus went through various obediences, one after the other. Battling with the passions, at the same time he labored honestly and fervently for the brethren, was meek, chaste, pious, courageous, and filled with love for all. The brethren were astonished at his labors and loved him; but the Saint fled from honor and was burning with the desire for greater spiritual perfection. Having renounced his own will, he entirely gave himself over to the service of God, cleansing his soul for Him by ascetic struggles. In the last years of his stay in the Chudov monastery he held the position of lamp-lighter.

In 1606 Archimandrite Paphnutius was ordained bishop and made Metropolitan of Krutitsa, St. Nicodemus went with him to Krutitsa, but soon began to entreat him to let him go into the wilderness; life in a Metropolitan's household, with its tumult, could not satisfy the soul of the ascetic. Metropolitan Paphnutius for a long time tried to persuade St. Nicodemus to stay with him, not wishing to be separated from his beloved disciple; but seeing his unbending resolve, and himself loving the desert, he blessed him to depart, and gave him in blessing an Icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, And thus St. Nicodemus, after living in Krutitsa for just one year, set out for a desert hermitage in the Far North.


Blessed Basil and St. Artemius of Verkola. 17th century Stroganov icon.


The native city of St. Nicodemus, Rostov the Great (16th century Kremlin).


Folk icon and pictures of the Kozha-Lake Monastery 100 years ago

The Most Holy Theotokos and St. Nicodemus protecting the Monastery, built over dried and cultivated tundra land


A typical chapel of the tundra similar to St. Nicodemus' abode at Khozyug


The Kosha-Lake Abbots: Sts. Abramius and Serapion St. Nicodemus with his icon of the Vladimir Theotokos


St. Nicodemus goes for water by the stream in his Khozyug hermitage
A watercolor from Russian Pilgrim. 1917


The desert-dwellers of the North were well known in Moscow at this period, and the pious Muscovites loved them dearly. Many of them would come to the capital for one need or another, and the noblemen and even the Tsars received them warmly and heaped gifts upon them, even entreating them to be godfathers for their children. One desert-dweller who was beloved in Moscow was St. Serapion of Kozha Lake,1 at whose hermitage in the Arctic tundra swamps St. Nicodemus now decided to settle.

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1 1611, June 27.


SAINT SERAPION was a Tatar Prince, captured at Kazan, who was then baptized and so came to love the Orthodox Faith that he resolved to leave the world and struggle in the northern wilderness. On a desert peninsula in Kozha Lake he met the anchorite Niphon, who became his elder. The two of them lived on grass and berries. After a period of trial, Niphon tonsured his disciple in the Angelic habit, and soon other brothers began to join them. After the death of Niphon, St. Serapion went to Moscow in 1584, receiving iand from the Tsar for the new monastery. In 1608 the Saint's disciple Abraham was made abbot, and St. Serapion himself withdrew to end his days in solitude.

When St. Nicodemus came to Kozha Lake he was received with love by St. Serapion and Abbot Abraham and joined to the brotherhood, which at that time numbered some forty monks. But here also St. Nicodemus did not stay for long, only a year and a half, laboring in the prosphora-bakery, thus imitating his patron Saint, Then, fleeing glory and honor, with the blessing of the superior, he went into the nearby wilderness of the river Khozyug, in the summer of 1609; and now another prophecy, that of the blessed Elias, was fulfilled: for he had called the Saint the "desert-dweller of Khozyug."

In the wilderness of Khoryug St. Nicodemus built a small cell by himself, dug the earth and planted vegetables, gathered roots, fished in the river, and thus fed himself by the work of his hands. However, he would eat the fish only when it had begun to spoil, so that his flesh might not take too sweet delight of earthly things. At first the monks would being him milk from the monastery, but soon the Saint refused to accept it any longer. His time was occupied with strict fasting and continence, almost ceaseless vigilance (for he took only a little sleep, and that standing up), constant prayer, frequently with tears, and hard labor. In this desert St. Nicodemus, found what his heart had desired for so long. "Oh, humble Nicodemus," he would say to himself, "you have found for yourself a silent place for salvation. And thus, arise in spirit in this short time, even if at the eleventh hour, for the evening has already drawn nigh, and the Righteous Judge is coming with glory to give to each according to his deeds." And he untiringly struggled in the mental activity. The Saint had not only to battle with himself, but also, like every true ascetic, to wage a stubborn spiritual warfare with the devil. The enemy began his warfare by trying to arouse in the ascetic the desires of the flesh and thereby to destroy him. For this reason, he would appear to the Saint, when the latter was going for water, in the form of a beautiful woman lying by the stream. But this attempt did not succeed. Having mortified the flesh and love for the world while in the monasteries, St. Nicodemus did not give in to the temptation. He understood the snares of the devil and prayed against them, and the phantom would disappear.

It was from experience of such trials as these that the Saint composed the following prayer against temptation, which has come down to our days:

"O Master, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Word of the Father! Do not put to shame me a sinner who hope in Thee and come to Thee for refuge. O Lover of mankind, God of every consolation, bountiful and merciful, O Lord who art before the ages and now and forever! Remove from me, Thy slave, the devil who riseth up against me and battleth with me, for like a lion he goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Likewise doth he arm himself against tre Thy slave and wisheth to devour me; but give me not over, O Lord, to those who wrong me; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen."

Often the desert-dwellers of the Far North had to face the full might of nature, a power fierce and untamed by man. But these frightful, destructive outbursts, which broke in on the quiet of their otherwise urdisturbed life, were conquered by the power of faith and prayer. "One day," writes the author of the original life of St. Nicodemus, "on the river Khozyug the waters rose up and became so high that they overflowed all the banks and inundated the whole region. They swept round the cell of the Saint, for it stood near the river, and so inundated it that it becare scarcely visible; only the roof remained in sight. Then St. Nicodemus took the Vladimir Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, with which his spiritual father and teacher, Metropolitan Paphnutius of Krutitsa, had blessed him, and went to the very peak of his cell and stood as on a pillar and prayed with tears, singing the Psalms. Thus he prayed with tears until the water subsided, returned to its bounds, and continued its natural course." Another time, during the heat of summer, the Saint's cell caught on fire; but again, his tearful prayer with the wonderworking Icon in his hands saved him and his cell from destruction, and he continued unwaveringly on the path of salvation.

Many times the devil appeared before the mental gaze of the Saint and tried to chase him away from his solitude. "Go away from here, evil monk," the demons would cry out, "or we will destroy you." But these threats had no success. The Saint banished the demons with prayer and continued his struggles.

Seeing his complete failure and the unbendingness of St. Nicodemus, the father of lies and pride made use of the following ruse. After appearing in a numberless multitude, the demons began to depart from the Saint, prom ising not to return again to him because of his holiness. They thought that the Saint would believe them and consider himself perfect, weaken his prayer, grow proud, and thus fall. But when, after some time, they returned and saw the same vigilance, they were compelled, in powerlessness and with shame, to leave St. Nicodemus for good.

Then did the power of God descend upon the Saint. Having purified and strengthened his soul in the good, St. Nicodemus offered it as a sacrifice to God. And God accepted this pure sacrifice and granted the Saint to become an implement of His mercy to sinful men, God vouchsafed to him, while he was still in the body on this earth, the gifts of clairvoyance, healing of infirmities, and the power to appear in spirit to those who called upon him with faith. When the Saint's future disciple and biographer, Hieromonk James, came to him for the first time, as a layman, he was greeted by the Saint as someone long known to him. On this first visit the Saint healed him of an affliction of the eyes; another time he healed him of an ailment of the teeth, and restored him from asphyxiation; and in 1638 he appeared to him in sleep and healed him of pains in the stomach.

Again, to Cyriacus Kozlov and Maximus Peshkov, who called upon the Saint with faith in a moment of danger while sailing on the White Sea, he appeared and saved them from death. Many other miracles also did St. Nicocieraus perform for the salvation of men; even his old monastic mantie gushed forth miracles for those who touched it with faith to the afflicted member. In this way the same James, on another occasion, was healed of toothache,

St. Nicodemus, an Angel in the body, having acquired Christian perfection, lived among the wild beasts of his desert as did Adam in the midst of Paradise. Once – it is related in his Life-Abbot Abraham of the Kozha Lake monastery, who often visited the Saint and held spiritual converse with him, "entered a boat with one monk and sailed up the river Khozyug in order to examine the newly-cleared hay fields. When we were on the way back and were sailing down the river, we saw the Saint walking near the river, and around him wild beasts, those that are called reindeer, were walking, and had no fear of him. But when they heard our voices they fled into the wilderness. The Abbot asked the Saint about the reindeer, whether these beasts frequently came there. And the Saint said that it was so. The Abbot was greatly astonished at this, how the reindeer walked near the Saint and did not fear him."

Crowds of people now began to come to the Saint, and each received from him that for which he came. The fame of the desert-dweller of Khozyug spread round about and reached even to Moscow. The chief hierarch of the Russian Church, Patriarch Ioasaph I, heard of the Saint's struggles, and as a sign of reverence he sent him his fox-fur coat, asking his prayers. This was in the year 1639. St. Nicodemus accepted this honored gift, kissed it, offered up prayer for the donor, but did not keep the coat for himself but rather sent it to the Kozha Lake monastery, saying: "A single shirt is enough for my poor self." This fur coat was preserved in the Kozha Lake monastery until 1885, when it burned in the fire which destroyed the Theophany church, at which time the mantle and walking staff of St. Nicodemus were also destroyed. St. Nicodemus already felt that he had travelled the path of his life without wavering, and now he desired only one thing: to be with Christ, for Whom he had labored his whole life long.

THUS THE SAINT began to pray: "O Master, Lord Jesus Christ! Vouchsafe me to be a communicant with Thy Saints and to be a participant of Thy Kingdom together with them, and number me with them in Thy light which Thou hast prepared for Thy righteous ones." The Saint had scarcely finished this prayer than there appeared before him two men: a hierarch and a monk. Thinking that these were ghosts, he became frightened, but the hierarch said: "Fear not, slave of Christ, desert-dweller and holy zealot. The Lord has sent us to inform you of your approaching demise, for soon you shall receive the good things of Jerusalem which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him." Falling at their feet, St. Nicodemus asked them who they were. To this the hierarch replied: "I am Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, and with me is Dionysius, Archimandrite of St. Sergius' monastery of the Holy Trinity. O holy one! That for which you entreated the Lord will be done to you according to your petition; you shall be numbered with the Saints and will be settled in the Heavenly Kingdom." With these words both Saints became invisible. St. Nicodemus, in spiritual joy, glorifying God and feeling the exhaustion of his body, called Abbot Jonah of the monastery and, having related to him concerning the apparition, asked for Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. This was seven months before the repose of the Saint, in December, 1639.

Abbot Jonah entreated St. Nicodemus to leave his cell, which had been built shortly before this in place of the Saint's old cell by peasants who served the monastery, and to lesve the desert in order to finish his days in the monastery. With tears the Saint parted with the beloved site of his ascetic struggles and went to the monastery, where he was met triumphantly by all the brethren, on May 20, 1640. The Saint lived only 44 more days after this.

Coming to the monastery, the God-pleaser settled in a certain empty cell, declining all invitations to live with the brethren, and here he prepared for his end, which occurred on July 3, 1640. On this day his disciple James, who then was still the layman John Dyatlev, a peasant of Priluki, went out after dinner on an obedience. Passing by the cell of St. Nicodemus, he heard his voice. Entering the ante-room, the disciple saw his Elder sitting in exhaustion on the threshold, and helped him to enter the cell, "Go, child John, in peace," said the Saint; "may the Lord be with you all the days of your life." John went out to his obedience. It was at this time that St. Nicodemus reposed.

Then the Abbot and the brethren, coming out of the refectory, smelled an extraordinary fragrance; discovering that it was coming from the cell of the Saint, they rejoiced and went there, but the cell was closed. After saying the usual prayer and receiving no reply, they entered the cell and found the Saint already reposed. His face was bright and joyful, and the cell was filled with fragrance.

After preparing the holy relics, the Abbot Jonah and the brethren buried them solemnly and honorably near the church of the Lord's Theophany, on the south side. The Russian Church numbered him among the Saints in the year 1662, doubtless due to the influence of Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow, who had been a monk in the monastery of Kozha Lake during the lifetime of St. Nicodemus, and succeeded Jonah as Abbot in 1642. The service to the Saint was composed at that time by Metropolitan Macarius Grevensky and the Serbian Abba Theodosius, who had come to Russia in connection with the case of Patriarch Nikon.

Ever afterward, all those who hasten to the Saint for help with faith and love receive what they entreat of St. Nicodemus, wonderworker of Kozha Lake.


THE ORIGINAL THEOPHANY CHURCH OF KOZHA LAKE MONASTERY as it appeared before the fire of 1885


Typical interior of a church of the Northern Thebaid, this one built by St. Tryphon of Pechenga and preserved exactly as the Saint knew it


A typical chapel of the tundra similar to St. Nicodemus' abode at Khozyug


A Northern Church in the Same Style as the Original Kozha Lake Monastery Church