Saint Varlaam (in the world Vasily Yefimovich Konoplev) was born in 1858 in the Yugo-Knauf factory of the Osinsky district of the Perm province into a peasant family of Old Believers without priests. From a young age, he sought the truth and, studying the Holy Scriptures, came to realize the necessity of the priesthood for salvation. In the 1890s, after long searches, he joined the Orthodox Church through the sacrament of chrismation, along with his father and brothers, a total of nineteen people.
In November 1893, he was tonsured into the rassophore and settled on the White Mountain, where he began to gather those wishing for monastic life. On February 1, 1894, he took the monastic vows with the name Varlaam and was ordained as a hierodeacon, and on February 22, as a hieromonk. Father Varlaam became the head of the newly built monastery, restored the Orthodox canonical worship, and paid attention to preaching.
In 1913, he was described as a wise and experienced leader to whom people turned in difficult times. His cell became a place of comfort for the suffering. In June 1917, the consecration of the Belogorsky Cathedral took place, attended by numerous pilgrims. However, in August 1918, the monastery was seized by the Bolsheviks, and Father Varlaam was arrested and shot on August 12 (25). Many monks of the monastery also accepted a martyr's end.
The names of the martyrs were concealed by the authorities, but in 1998 they were glorified as locally revered saints of the Perm Diocese and canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in August 2000 for church-wide veneration.
