Saint Varlaam of Keretsky

St. Varlaam was born in the village of Keret in 1505. In 1535 he married and was first ordained a deacon, then a priest, and served in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Kola. In 1540 he was transferred to the Church of Saint George in Keret. There he killed his wife either for adultery either she became demon possessed. After murdering his wife, he buried her and went to Kola to confess his sin before St. Theodore. He gave Varlaam an unusual and heavy penance; he was to carry the coffin with his wife's body in a boat until it was decomposed and reduced to dust, sailing from Keret to Kola then back again. Therefore Varlaam returned to Keret, dug up the coffin of his wife, and sailed for 3 years. In the 3rd year of his voyage, an abundance of sea mollusks caused the death of many ships. St. Varlaam prayed to God, sprinkled Holy Water on the mollusks, and expelled them. After Varlaam buried his wife a second time, he was tonsured a monk in 1548 at the Pechenga Monastery. After some time, Varlaam returned to his homeland and settled at the mouth of the Keret River, and after a while he moved to one of the islands of the Chupsky Bay. In 1589 or 1590 he reposed there peacefully. His feast day is on November 6 and is the patron saint for those who traveled by sea.