Early Life and Vocation
Tryphon was born in 1495 in the Novgorod region, the son of a priest, and was raised by pious parents. Sources record that from his early years he resolved to devote his life to apostolic work and to proclaim the Gospel to the pagan Laplanders. According to the Wikipedia account he received training as a military engineer before pursuing a religious vocation.
By tradition he received his call while praying in the forest, prompted by a voice to go north to preach. About the year 1520 he journeyed to the wild lands of the Kola Peninsula and established himself on the banks of the Pechenga River.
Mission to the Lapps
Tryphon first acquainted himself with the language and pagan religious beliefs of the Sami (Lapp) people before beginning to preach. His early efforts were met with great mistrust: the synaxarion relates that local sorcerers incited the people against him, and he endured hardships, insults, and beatings, at times hiding in caves and living as an ascetic devoted to prayer through the night.
Through his meekness and kindly words, the number of those who listened to him gradually grew, and many came to believe. In 1532 the hieromonk Elias (Elijah) came to consecrate the church and baptize the converts, and it was he who tonsured Metrophanes with the monastic name Tryphon.
The Pechenga Monastery
Beside the church, Tryphon established the Pechenga-Trinity Monastery, situated on the cold northern sea near the frontier of Murmansk, and served as its leader. He is also credited with founding the Church of the Annunciation in the region.
Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) supported and richly endowed the poor monastery. One account records that the monks expelled their abbot in 1548, forcing Tryphon to wander for some years collecting alms, and that in 1556 he returned with a new abbot named Gury and an imperial charter granting the monastery concessions.
Repose and Legacy
Tryphon reposed on December 15, 1583, at Pechenga. Sources differ on his age at death — some give 88 and others 98 — and on how long he lived among the Lapps, variously about sixty or seventy years.
Before his death he foretold to the brethren the ruin of the monastery and their death by the sword. This came to pass in 1589, when the Swedes destroyed the Pechenga-Trinity Monastery; the rebuilt community was later moved to the Kola Peninsula. His relics rest at his burial place, and following a restoration of the monastery between 2009 and 2012 a new church was built over them.
