d. 1445
A priest who withdrew to the wild banks of the Vetluga river and lived there in solitude for twenty-eight years before disciples gathered to him.
Our Venerable Father Barnabas, Abbot of Vetluga
Barnabas of Vetluga was a fifteenth-century Russian hermit who originated from Great Ustiug, where he served as a priest in one of the city churches before withdrawing into the forested wilderness of the upper Volga basin. In 1417 he settled at a place called Red Hill on the banks of the River Vetluga, an area so remote that no human habitation lay within fifty versts.
He passed twenty-eight years there in solitude, devoting himself to psalmody and prayer and subsisting, according to his Life, on grass and acorns. He reposed in old age on June 11, 1445. A monastic community later grew up at the site of his labors, fulfilling a prophecy attributed to him, and his name is preserved in the town of Varnavin that developed around the monastery.
After Barnabas's death, monks came from various lands to settle at Red Hill, followed by farmers, and population spread along the river toward the Volga. The monks established a cenobitic community known as the Varnavinsk wilderness-monastery.
At the site they built two churches: one in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, and a second dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker raised over the saint's grave. The town of Varnavin eventually developed around the monastery.
Barnabas's relics were examined in 1639 under Patriarch Joasaph and enshrined at the monastery he had inspired. They were placed in a silver tomb in 1914.
The relics were confiscated in 1922 and are now kept in the wooden Church of the Archangel Michael at the site.
Not the Apostle Barnabas.