There are names in the Orthodox calendar whose whole lives say, clearly and simply, that a Christian's homeland is wherever Christ is. "The Adventures of an Italian in Russia" - so, in secular terms, one might title the life of Saint Anthony the Roman of Novgorod. True, his life contained none of the adventures one sees in films, yet it held things greater than that - ascetic struggle, sincere faith, and piety.
The future saint was born in 1067 - the same year in which Minsk is first mentioned in the chronicles. Anthony's family was very wealthy, and the child grew up wanting for nothing. Yet the boy showed no interest in earthly riches - from his earliest years he was drawn above all to Orthodoxy.
In 1054 the schism took place, dividing the Christian world into Orthodox and Catholic. Most citizens of Rome followed the Latin confession. Anthony's father and mother, however, brought up their son in the Orthodox faith. And they did so with such truth and sincerity that when they died, leaving the seventeen-year-old youth an orphan, he chose the path of Orthodox monastic life.
Anthony gave most of the wealth he inherited to the poor. He kept only a few family jewels for himself, yet even with those he acted in an unusual way: he put them into a wooden barrel, sealed it with pitch, and cast it into the sea. It is unlikely that he hoped to recover them, or meant by this to test the power of prayer. Anthony was not planning a sea voyage. What he sought was renunciation of the world. Following the call of his heart, he chose a lonely skete and spent twenty years there in silence, labour, and prayer.
Yet the world at that time was far from peaceful. Danger could come even from one's fellow Christians. In the early twelfth century, conflict between the Latins and those faithful to the Orthodox Church was growing. Who could have imagined that clashes between believers who not long before had all called themselves by one name - Christians - could become so fierce? Sees were seized, churches laid waste, and the struggle for power and influence continued. At times blood was even shed. The Orthodox monastery where the monk Anthony laboured was eventually taken over by Catholics.
The monks scattered in different directions. Saint Anthony too had to seek another place. Still cherishing the silence and solitude he loved, he spent a whole year in a cave on a desolate shore. And perhaps he would have remained there, had it not been that on 5 September 1105, by the will of God, a violent storm broke out. A huge wave struck precisely the part of the shore where the monk had hidden himself. A stone broke away from the rock and, against every law of nature, floated off against the current with the saint upon it. For several days the fragment was borne over the waters until, like a little boat, it drew up to the shore. Before the astonished monk lay the land of Novgorod - more precisely, the village of Volkhovskoye. Great Novgorod was only three kilometres away, while Rome lay nearly three thousand kilometres behind him.
Saint Anthony did not at once understand where the sea had brought him. Happily, he met a craftsman who knew many languages, Latin among them. The monk understood in what land he had arrived, and at once turned to God in prayer - not to ask to be sent home again, but to ask the Lord to let him understand the local language. Church tradition says that this happened immediately. There is, however, another view - that the saint learned Russian gradually from the local people, who came to him one after another, sensing the purity of his soul and seeing his ascetic life. Accounts of these wondrous events have come down to us, among other sources, in the Novgorod chronicles. As for the secret of how he arrived in Rus', the venerable one revealed it only to Saint Nikita.
The following year another astonishing event took place on the Volkhov: fishermen caught a barrel - tarred and sealed, and full of precious things. Venerable Anthony recognised it at once as the very hiding place he himself had once committed to the waves. He described the contents exactly and so recovered his property, which he immediately used to build a new monastery.
The memorable day on which the saint was cast ashore was the eve of the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God. For that reason, the monastery built on the very spot where the ascetic first set foot on Novgorod soil was dedicated to the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. The cathedral of the same dedication was built in the monastery in 1117. For eight years craftsmen adorned the white-stone church with frescoes. In 1131 Saint Anthony was ordained to the priesthood, and before long the former Italian monk became abbot of a Russian monastery.
For sixteen years he ruled the monastery as a true spiritual father to the whole brotherhood. Deeds of mercy, godliness, and a life pleasing to God - these were the things of which he spoke without ceasing to the monks, and in them he himself gave the brightest example. Even in his lifetime people saw in him a great ascetic. What they honoured most of all was his sincere humility and righteous life, which stood as an example to all monastics.
On the see of Novgorod, the Lord brought together two saints of the Russian Church - Venerable Anthony the Roman and Saint Niphont of the Kiev Caves. It was the latter, as bishop of the Novgorod land, who ordained the Italian monk to the priesthood. And he too, serving with a gathering of priests, sang the burial service for the abbot in his own monastery. Venerable Anthony peacefully surrendered his soul to God on 3 August 1147.
After the saint's death, healings began to take place at his tomb. Through Anthony's prayers, Bishop Kirill, who was abbot of the monastery from 1580 to 1594, was healed of a deadly illness. In thanksgiving he built a chapel over the saint's stone, which had been preserved there - the same stone that had carried the Italian over the waters to Holy Rus'. Later an image of the saint was painted on this piece of rock.
Both the monks of the monastery and pilgrims prayed fervently at the burial place of its first abbot. To a man named Fyodor, who was possessed by a demon, Venerable Anthony appeared in a vision. At the saint's command Fyodor touched the stone and immediately received healing from the unclean spirit that had tormented him.
The time for the glorification of Venerable Anthony was revealed to one of the monastery's monks, a righteous man named Niphont. Together with the former abbot Kirill - at that time archimandrite of the Trinity - Saint Sergius Monastery - Niphont petitioned His Holiness Patriarch Job for permission to uncover the relics of the venerable one, place them in a new shrine, and set them in church for veneration. The Primate of the Russian Church blessed this work pleasing to God.
As they prepared for that solemn event, the whole brotherhood of the monastery, with Metropolitan Varlaam of Novgorod at their head, kept a strict fast for some time and read special prayers to the saint. When the fast had ended, Venerable Anthony appeared to Metropolitan Varlaam and blessed him to carry out the Patriarch's command. Only after this, on 1 July 1597, was the tomb with the holy relics opened.
As the chronicle bears witness, when the tomb was opened, the saint's honourable relics were found "lying as though alive". A fragrance not of this world spread from them through the whole monastery. The new shrine with the relics was set beside the former burial place, where the sick at once began to receive miraculous healings. In that same year Venerable Anthony was glorified among the saints.
Though almost a thousand years lie between us and the saint, we can still draw a line from his time to ours and set ourselves in his place. In our plural society we have to make choices every day. This concerns religion, and much else besides. Could we too live in a rich family and yet think first of God? If left orphaned, could we refuse the downward path of squandering a great fortune, and instead renounce it all and give ourselves to God? Could we lose again and again what we love most - family, friends, solitude - and still not fall into despair? Could we find ourselves on a stone - or even in a drifting boat - rushing no one knows where, with the risk of drowning in the deep? Could we come to a foreign land and become one of its own? Could we love its people with all our heart?
There were many miracles from God in Saint Anthony's life. Yet through all the years given him on earth, he burned with a great desire to fulfil God's will for him, whatever it might be. And that choice - sincere humility and the quiet acceptance of all that the Lord sends - Venerable Anthony the Roman made throughout his life. May God, through the saint's prayers, help us to make the same choice.
