Beginning of monastic life

When Varfolomei turned twelve years old, he took up a strict fast and asked his parents for permission to become a monk. They were not opposed to it, but they asked him to wait until their death. After their death, the twenty-three-year-old Varfolomei went to the Pokrovsky Monastery in Khotkovo, where his widowed brother Stefan lived. He persuaded his brother not to remain in domestic life but to go with him to find a place of hermitage. They found such a place on the banks of the river Konchura, on Makovets hill in the middle of a dense forest. The hermits built themselves first a hut made from branches, then a humble cell, and finally they constructed a small church. Prayer for the Establishment of a Church, fresco in the patriarchal chambers of the Trinity- Sergius Lavra.