174 ST. TRIPHON'S MONASTERY 



those who were moved by the patience and mildness of the preacher, 

 and by his self-denying love to them notwithstanding their persecutions. 

 Thus it happened that when he reappeared amongst them, and some 

 would savagely cry out : " Let us kill him," others would gently say, 

 " He has done us no harm, on the contrary, he wishes us well ; there- 

 fore why should we kill him ? " And the number of these latter 

 gradually increased. After preaching for twenty years on the banks 

 of the rivers Pechenga, Tuloma, and Pazreka, Triphon had already 

 imparted the Evangelical Gospel to many; and numbers of Lap- 

 landers believed in the Lord Jesus. But at that time he was a 

 layman, and dared not himself baptize the Laplanders ; and there 

 was not one ordained priest in the whole of that district. This 

 induced the Holy Triphon to journey to Nizhni Novgorod, where he 

 asked and obtained from Archbishop Macarius an edict for building a 

 church. He brought carpenters with him ; and carried on his own 

 shoulders, from a spot over three versts distant, logs of timber to build 

 the Lord's House with. Working in this manner during the day, he 

 devoted his nights to prayer ; and meanwhile continued to strengthen 

 his converts in their faith. This church, built in the name of the 

 Holy Everlasting Trinity, remained for three years without being 

 consecrated, because there was no priest. Triphon went to Kola, the 

 only Russian colony ; and there as if under heavenly guidance he met 

 Elias, a regular priest ; and persuaded him to accompany him to the 

 river Pechenga. The ardent wishes of Triphon were fulfilled ; his 

 church was consecrated; the Laplanders whom he had converted, 

 were baptized ; and he himself, being already a veritable monk in his 

 innermost soul and according to his whole apostolic activity, now 

 entered the monastery. This was approximately in the year 1532. 



Having become a monk, Triphon commenced building the mona- 

 stery ; and when it was completed men began to gather round the 

 holy Father, who were seeking solitude and wished to renounce the 

 world for the sake of serving God. Meanwhile Triphon most zealously 

 continued his labours of spreading the Gospel amongst the savage Lap- 



