THE LIFE OF Saint Dalmatus of Siberia

THE LIFE OF
Saint Dalmatus of Siberia
AND THE MONASTIC EXODUS INTO THE SIBERIAN TAIGA1

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1 Sources: The weekly periodical Russian Pilgrim, 1894 and 1896; The Earthly Life of the Most Holy Mother of God and Her Miraculous Icons, by E. Poselyanin, 1902; the biweekly periodical of Pochaev Monastery, Russian Monk, 1911, no. 12, p. 73; Orthodox Way for 1968, Jordanville, N.Y., p. 118; the monthly periodical Strannik, 1866, IV; Historical Description of Kirensk Mon astery, Moscow, 1841, Russian Ascetics of the 18th and 19th Centuries, by Bp. Nikodim of Belgorod, vol., 13, Moscow, 1912 (all in Russian).


Commemorated February 15



ST. DALMATUS OF SIBERIA

KONTAKTION, TONE 8

Having been a valiant warrior for an earthly king,+ thou didst abandon everything for the service of the King of Heaven.+ Leading an army of warriors against enemies visible and invisible,+ with the sword of the Spirit and the aid of the Queen of Heaven thou didst repel their assaults.+ Now in the heavens, do not cease to entreat Christ, O holy Father Dalmatus,+ that we who venerate thy memory may obtain great mercy and cry out in gratitude to God: Alleluia.


SAINT DALMATUS was born in the first quarter of the 17th century in a cossack family. His father was Ivan Makrinsky and his mother was a descendent of newly baptized Siberian Tatars, evidently of noble lineage. Thus, the Saint was a native Siberian, probably from the town of Tobolsk, which at that time was the cultural and strategic center for the whole of vast Siberia. In holy Baptism the young Makrinsky was given the name Demetrius in honor of the Vologda ascetic, St. Demetrius of Priluki,the disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh and an outstanding representative of the Northern Thebaid.1 This already left a certain mystical stamp on the boy's spiritual formation, for later he was to be in so many ways similar to his heav enly patron. Later, when living alone as a hermit in a cave in the taiga, often he would bring to mind the image of St. Demetrius and draw from it strength in the severe trials and temptations which inevitably come upon desert dwellers. And St. Demetrius, seeing his struggles and hearing his tearful prayer and lamentation, interceded before the Throne of God on behalf of the young bearer of his name and follower of his spiritual path.

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1 Commemorated Feb. 11, +1392.



One of the original churches built by St. Tryphon of Vyatka


BY THE MIDDLE of the 17th century the movement of ascetics to the isolated places of the Northern Thebaid had largely spent itself. Hundreds of monasteries had been established, and the desert had become populated with many thousands of monks. But the new historical conditions were not so favorable for the monastic spirit, and the Time of Troubles had brought desolation to many monasteries. Yet the thirst for the desert life of solitude not only could not be quenched, but was even increasing. And so, lovers of the desert life found a new place for their solitary labors in the sparsely settled area beyond the Ural Mountains, where wild pagan and Moslem tribes still roamed. This boundless area, like a new world opening before the lovers of silence and wilderness – was Siberia. It provided new wide spaces of freedom for monastic endeavor, especially in its dense, impenetrable northern jungle: the taiga.

The taiga is the dense virgin forest which then covered most of the North. It indeed offered opportunities to extend the frontier of the Northern Thebaid, and many holy men adorned it with their sanctity. Thus the monastic exodus, the perennial Christian flight to the desert, occurred eastward across the Urals by way of Great Ustiug, Vyatka, Perm, along the great Kama Riverand soon the whole of this region north to the Arctic Sea was caught up in the fervor of bringing the Orthodox Faith and monasticism to the wild peoples of this new land. This may be clearly seen in the life and labors of St. Tryphon of Vyatka, who travelled through this vast territory disseminating the monastic ideal through his personal sanctity, building churches and monastic communities on his way.1 As early as 1593 monks of Kozha Lake Monastery, Cornelias, Longinus, Herman and Bogolep, founded a New Kozha monastery on the Enisei River in Mangazea, where in 1664 Abbess Stephanida founded a convent.

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1 +1612, October 8.


ST. TIKHON OF ENISEY

St. Tikhon was born in Usting in a priestly family and migrated to a frontier town on the Enesei River in his adult years. There he entered the New Kozha Monastery and led an ascetic life, with the hope of going away entirely into the wilderness. With the Abbot's blessing, he set out in a small boat with the monk Dionysius, up the river Enesei. At Turukhan they spent the winter, and the next spring (1657) they went 20 miles further up the Eneset, where they found a beautiful uninhabited place in the midst of an impenetrable for est. There they erected a cross and then built cells and began to live a God-pleasing life. With their hands they labored, and with their lips they ceaselessly glorified God in prayer. Soon others began to join them, notable elders among them being Mercurius, Gerasim, Paul and Nikon. With God's help and the blessing of Archbishop Simeon of Tobolsk, they erected a wooden church dedi. cated to the Holy Trinity, and the brothers compelled St. Tikhon to accept the priestly rank. As abbot, he gave the chief example of ascetic life and meekness, Before celebrating Liturgy he would spend the night in prayer, and during Great Lent he would eat only bread and water on Saturdays and Sundays. He wore iron chains, and heavy iron crosses on his chest and back. The hesychast nature of his sanctity made him worthy to be God's vehicle in revealing the relics of the Blessed Child Basil of Mangazes, which he transferred to his monastery on skis, pulling a sled. On July 24, 1682, he reposed, sater appearing gloriously from Paradise and giving healings at his grave.

ST. HERMOGENES OF LENA

St. Hermogenes also was a newcomer to Siberia, bringing the light of Christianity to the natives along the Lena River. He began also in search of a desolate place on the shores of this great, silent river. Having lived as a recluse he gathered around himself some brethren, who appealed to the church and secular authorities for permission to build a church and have it consecrated. Already in 1665 a second church adorned this Kirensk Monastery, surrounded by the monks' cells. As a result of local strife, however, the Saint did not even see this church built before a band of "pioneers" took him as a hostage, fleeing with him to the shores of the Amur River, where in 1671 they established the Fort of Albazin. There the Saint erected two monasteries up the Kutar River and for twenty years he labored with apostolic zeal. In 1685 the Chinese destroyed Fort Albazin and its inhabitants were released, which gave the Saint the opportunity to return to his beloved Kirensk Monastery. Having returned, the Saint died on December 19, 1690, and was buried there. A reliquary was soon built over his grave, where many miracles took place.


THE FARTHERMOST OUTPOST OF THE SIBERIAN MISSION AND FIRST ORTHODOX MISSION IN AMERICA

RESURRECTION CHURCH AT ST. PAUL HARBOR ON KODIAK ISLAND IN ALASKA

A topographical drawing made in 1798, showing the original buildings of the harbor as seen from the north side


St. Hermogenes' Kirensk Monastery (18th century engraving)


The Tobolsk Archbishop Gerasim (+1650) was the hierarch during whose rale many monasteries were officially founded in Siberia; he was a wise and very active archpastor. In connection with him there is an interesting mention of a group of enterprising Novgorodians who reached the Aleutian Islands at about this time and settled in America, keeping alive and spreading their Orthodox faith and customs. Later St. Herman of Alaska (+1836) mentioned them in a letter to Abbot Nazarius of Valaam. The farthermost outpost of this Siberian missionary fervor, the Mission to America of 1794, was composed exclusively of monks, who thus brought to the American continent, most strikingly in the person of St. Herman, the spirit of the Northern Thebaid, together with the great text of the monastic spiritual struggle the Philokalia.

It is impossible even to mention all the great monastic figures of 17th and 18th century Siberia; but one cannot omit from this brief list at least the monastic founders beyond Lake Baikal: Elder Gerasim the Wonderworker, who founded the Ascension Monastery in Irkutsk, Hieromonk Macarias, who founded Holy Transfiguration Monastery in 1681, and Abbot Theodosius, founder of Holy Trinity Monastery in 1682.

ST. DALMATUS, OR DALMAT

IT WAS to such a company that St. Dalmat was to join himself. And so Demetrius Ivanovich Makrinsky, fortified by the Holy Mysteries of the Orthodox Church, grew strong in body and spirit, and in his virtuous life as a valiant cossack and fearless defender of the Orthodox Sovereign, be came distinguished by some heroic deed, and for his faithful service to the Russian State he was rewarded with the rank of nobility. He was tall, handsome, and strong, rich and honored. He was happily married and had children, one of whom, his son, later joined his father as an ascetic and became his successor as abbot of his monastery.

And then suddenly, as his Life tells us, "he left his wife and children, and becoming inflamed with love for God and ascetic struggle, entered Nevyansk Monastery in the nearby Ural Mountains."

What the cause was for this abrupt change in his hitherto full and happy life, we do not know: God calls to His service in unfathomable ways. But one event took place about the same time in the city of Tobolsk which indeed could have caused many to stop in deep perplexity in order to reflect on the value of all our earthly endeavors in the face of the eternity which awaits us after death.

On the 14th of August, 1643, on the eve of the Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, a great fire broke out in Tobolsk, and almost the whole city burned to the ground. The fire destroyed the city fort, all the government buildings, the cathedral and parish churches, the archbish op's residence, storehouses, the business district and countless other buildings and private homes. The fire lasted for several days and made people penniless overnight. Whether Demetrius himself lost everything in the fire, as thousands of others did, or whether, seeing the all-consuming fire, he made a thorough reevaluation of his spiritual life, or even made a vow to dedicate his life to God we do not know. What we do know is that the worldly hero decided at about this time to become a struggler for God. With deep devotion he took an icon precisely of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, abandoning everything else and went into the uninhabited Ural Mountains die to the world. in order to

In the monastery the young struggler was tonsured with the name of Dalmat and given over to monastic obediences for the testing and refining of his ascetic fervor. The monastic ideal of the Northern Thebaid was taking root in Siberia at this time; books and tales of monasticism were spreading, aided by such powerful church figures as the Tobolsk hierarch Gerasim. And so the ascetic fervor could not but ignite the heart of the young monk Dalmat also. He rapidly progressed in the spiritual life and thirsted for the mental inward activity which was so characteristic of his patron, St. Demetrius of Priluki.


TOBOLSK

THE HEART OF ORTHODOX SIBERIA
The upper and lower towns of Tobolsk after the fire of 1643


The upper and lower towns of Tobolsk


View of the city of Tobolsk from the Irtysh River


METROPOLITAN PHILOTHEUS OF TOBOLSK
Theodore in Schema

1650-1727


So outstanding was the monk Dalmat, both in his strict ascetic struggles and his virtuous life, that the brothers of the monastery elected him to be their abbot, even though he was still quite young. But the humble Dalmat, fleeing worldly glory and the responsibility for so many souls, fled the monastery, taking with him his cell-icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, seeking a solitary place where he might please God by a life of silence and ascetic struggles.

Our holy Father found a place according to his desire on the bank of the river Iset, where the river Techa flows into it. Here, on a hill which from of old had borne the name of "White Town," he dug a cave for himself and began to live an anchoretic life. This was on land which belonged to the Tatar Prince Iligei.

But this lamp of Orthodox monastic life, St.Dalmat, was not meant to be hid under a bushel, but to be placed upon a lampstand and shine for the salvation of others, And so it was that the rumor of the great ascetic soon spread among the inhabitants of this area, not only among the Christians, but also among those who had not yet been enlightened by Holy Baptism. Many of the Christians began to join him and share his life of monastic struggle, and from as far away as Nizhniy Novgorod on the Volga River in the west, a certain Elder, John, a disciple of the Elder Dorotheus, was granted a miraculous revelation concerning the labors of St. Dalmat, and he hastened into Siberia to join his community.

Many laymen also, both Christian and non-Christian, would come to visit the Saint and take delight in his sweet converse which was for their spiritual profit; those who were not yet Christians would leave him with an awareness of how far the Orthodox Faith surpassed their own pagan beliefs.

Thus was the beginning made, in the year 1644, for the monastery which later came to be called the "Dalmatian" monastery, after its holy founder. Soon the cave of St, Dalmat could no longer contain all the ascetics who desired to share his life, and the Saint asked the blessing of Archbishop of Tobolsk, Gerasimus Kremlev, to build a chapel with wooden walls. This was the first building of the new monastery, and in it was placed the wonderworking Icon of the Dormition which the Saint had brought with him when he first settled there.

NOT LONG, HOWEVER, was the young community to enjoy repose. The first enemies to appear were the Russian lease-holders Korolev and Shipitsyni, to whom Iligei had just leased the whole "White Town" with its surrounding area. Here they made a great income from fish, otters, and beavers, and for some reason they formed the idea that the ascetics who had settled there were dangerous rivals in this undertaking. Resorting to slander in order to remove their "rivals," they told the Prince that the Elder Dalmat had built a monastery there and intended to take away his whole estate. The Prince, enraged at the "brazenness" of the desert-dwellers, hastened to the cave of the Saint with bared sword, The Elder met the Prince with meekness and true Christian calmness and courage, and informed that they were related to each other, since the Saint's mother was descended from newly-baptized Siberian Tatars. The majestic appearance of the Saint, his extraordinary meekness calm, and the news of his kinship, immediately disposed Iligei favorably towards the Saint. He placed his sword at the Saint's feet and departed in silence.

But the malice of the Saint's enemies did not cease and they continued to spread slanders about him to the Prince, extending even to the Saint's supposed secret desire to kill the Prince himself. Again the Prince believed the false accusations, and this time he resolved to punish the monks most cruelly. Therefore, with his army, composed chiefly of his fellow Moslems, he set out for "White Town." Nightfall found him on the opposite bank of the river from the monastery, and he decided to wait to cross the river in the morning. The destruction of the barely-established monastery seemed certain.


A river in the Ural Mountains


Typical structures of a well-to-do monastery in Siberia


ST. DALMATUS DORMITION MONASTERY
as it looked at its flourishing peak at the end of Imperial Russia From a painting preserved at the monastery


Siberian natives: a Tunguse family in their birch-bark tent


Soon the night bonfires were lit and, being reflected in the dark waters of the wide river, gave the scene an ominous character. The monks on the op posite shore could not but see the fires and hear the echoed shouting and singing and the vicious laughter of their enemies, who seemed to celebrate their victory in advance.

Having almost no means of self-defence, the monks turned for help in prayer to the Mother of God, their sure Protectress. And quick help was indeed rendered. That very night the Queen of Heaven appeared to Iligei in a dream. It was a majestic apparition: clad in royal purple, with a glittering crown above Her head, the Mother of God held a flaming sword, and in Her right hand a whip. Sternly She forbade the pagan prince to do any harm to St. Dalmat and his fellow-strugglers, commanding him to give this land to the Saint in perpetuity, together with all its rights.

Greatly shocked by this vision, Prince ligei completely changed his intention, and in the morning he crossed the river with a few of his followers and told the Elder of the miraculous appearance to him of a Woman, Whom he called the Mother of God. From that time on Prince Iligei had a special respect for St. Dalmat, protecting him from enemies and giving him abundant gifts.

The following spring, when the lease on the land had expired, the Prince came with his whole family to the Saint's monastery, conducted the Saint over the whole extent of the property, and solemnly presented the land to the monastery, giving the Saint, in addition, as a sign of his respect, his own iron helmet and coat of mail, which was preserved up to this century in the monastery sepulchre. This occurred in the year 1646, which is considered the year of the monastery's foundation.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is acquired by many struggles and much suffering. And so, even after the Saint's deliverance from Iligei he did not enjoy repose for long. In the beginning of 1651 a wild horde of pagan Kalmyks attacked the monastery, burned the buildings, and killed with the sword or took into captivity all the monks, St. Dalmat alone was miraculously preserved from fire and death. The monastery was completely destroyed, except for the wonder-working Icon of the Dormition, which miraculously remained through the looting and the fire, only one corner of it being slightly scorched where the brazen hand of one of the pagans had touched it.

Resolved to work out his salvation in patience and long-suffering, St. Dalmat returned to the site of his monastery and began to restore it from its foundations. Thanks to his fervor and his labors, within a few years a wooden church and several wooden cells had been built, and again monks and pilgrims flocked to the holy Elder from near and far, begging his counsel and aiding the monastery with their gifts.

Later the monastery was again subjected to the attacks of wild Siberian tribes, and several times was laid waste, until the pious Tsar Theodore Alexe evich caused it to be surrounded with a wall and fortified, in 1682. Here the Saint finished the course of his much-suffering life in peace in the year 1697, being buried within the monastery walls.

After the Saint's repose, his own son, Archimandrite Isaac, was abbot in his monastery. It was he who, in 1717, built the stone church which remained until this century, dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, with wings dedicated to St. John the Theologian and a sign of the kinship of St. Dalmat with the main monastic current further west in Russia -St. Demetrius of Priluki, the contemporary and fellow-converser with St. Sergius of Radonezh. Later in the monastery there was a small home-church dedicated to Sts. Sergius and Nikon of Radonezh, Until the Revolution the "Dalmatian" monastery, beautifully situated on the hill of "White Town," although it was never large (with 60 monks in 1908), was a leading place of pilgrimage for the pious Orthodox faithful, who were drawn both by the holy memory of St. Dalmat, and by the wonder-working Icon treasured in the main stone church, whose feast days on February 15 and August 15 attracted a great multitude of pilgrims.

A chapel was built over the grave of St. Dalmat, and in it were kept his monastic cowl and mantle and his portrait (which is presented here in the beginning of this Life). Up to the present century services were held there almost daily, and a book was kept which recorded the many miracles which occurred by his prayers.

And thus even the last frontier of open space in the vast Russian land came to know the monastic tradition of St. Sergius, in the person of the holy Elder Dalmatus, who even under the attack of barbarian tribes kept alive the flame of true monasticism and sanctity in a final blossoming of the Northern Thebaid in the wild Siberian land.