Venerable Varlaam, Abbot of Khutinsk

Varlaam was born in Novgorod to a pious family and loved reading the Psalms from childhood. He withdrew to a wild place on the Volkhov, near the village of Khutyn. A group of Novgorodians, among them Procopius Malyshevich, who later became the monk Porphyry, and his brother Theodore, followed him. Varlaam cut wood, ploughed and prayed through the night.

A church of the Transfiguration was built, and a monastery grew around it. His Life tells that he baptized a prince's son and that he saw the fish that fishermen had hidden from him before Easter. When his friend Anthony returned from Constantinople, Varlaam handed the monastery to him and died on 6 November 1192. The Archbishop of Novgorod buried him.