Joasaph of Belgorod

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Saint

Ioasaph of Belgorod
Saint Joasaph of Belgorod
Born8 (19) September 1705
Priluki, Pryluky Regiment, Cossack Hetmanate, Tsardom of Russia
Died10 (21) December 1754
Grayvoron, Belgorod Governorate, Russian Empire
Venerated inEastern Orthodoxy
Major shrineCathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Belgorod, Russia
Feast10 December

Joasaph of Belgorod (

hierarch, bishop of Belgorod
from 1748 until his death.

His remains were found to be incorrupt, and after many miracles he was glorified by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1911. Stolen from his shrine in 1917, the saint's body was thought to be lost but was eventually found in storage in a museum and returned to Belgorod in 1991.

Early life

Born at Priluki, in the Russian Empire's Cossack Hetmanate (present-day Ukraine), Ioachim Gorlenko was the son of Colonel Andrei Dmitrievich Gorlenko of the Pryluky Regiment, by his marriage to Maria Danylovna, a daughter of Danylo Apostol (1654–1734), a notable military leader and ruler, Hetman of the Cossack Hetmanate from 1727 until his death. The young Gorlenko thus had influential connections. After attending the Kiev Theological Academy, in 1725 he was tonsured a monk of the Mezhyhirya Monastery, under the name of Hilarion.[1]

Career and miracles

In 1727 Hilarion (as he then was) took monastic vows and received the name of Joasaph, and in 1728 he was ordained a deacon. By the end of that academic year he was teaching at the academy. In 1737 he was appointed archimandrite of the Mhar Monastery near Lubny. In 1744, by command of the Empress Elizabeth, Iosaph was advanced to the rank of archimandrite and translated to become head of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. On 2 June 1748 he was consecrated as bishop of Belgorod and Oboyanska.[1]

Glorification of Joasaph, Belgorod,
4 September 1911

After his arrival in Belgorod, Joasaph was noted for his untiring efforts for his diocese and especially for his work to help those in need, often visiting the poor and the sick.[2]

He died on 10 December 1754, aged only 49, at a village in the Graivoron district. On 15 December his body was taken from there to Belgorod and was placed in his Holy Trinity Cathedral. Not until 28 February 1755 was the coffin transferred to a crypt in the cathedral which had been made on Joasaph's orders. Some years later the body was found to be

Tsar Nicholas II asked the Holy Synod to glorify Joasaph as a saint, which it agreed to do. On 4 September 1911 the glorification was celebrated in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Belgorud, attended by more than 200,000 people, many of whom had come from all over the Empire and beyond.[2]

Before the First World War, Joasaph's relics were greatly venerated and were brought out for the curing of the sick, when great crowds came hoping for a miraculous cure. One who attended such an occasion wrote "Now, it is hard to imagine that sight: thousands and thousands of sick, bent, crippled, possessed, and blind people stood and lay on both sides of the road, along which the saint's relics were to be carried."[3] A substantial shrine, made of silver, was created in the Holy Trinity Cathedral.[2]

In the summer of 1914, when news came of the Austro-Hungarian monitor bombardment of the Serbian city of Belgrade beginning on 29 July 1914, one landowner, Prince Obolensky, spoke stirringly to his peasantry of the need for war with Austria, and they reacted enthusiastically. He later learned that his hearers had understood him to mean the Belgorod which held the relics of the recently glorified Joasaph.[4]

Loss and return of the relics

Icon of St Joasaph at an exhibition in 2018

After the

Patriarch Alexy II took part.[2] The same year, Leningrad returned to its former name of Saint Petersburg
.

Joasaph's name is still revered by the Orthodox faithful, and above all by those from the Ukraine.[5]

The Feast of the Opening of the Relics of St. Joasaph, Bishop of Belgorod, is celebrated on 4/17 September and also on 10/23 December, the date of his death.[6]

He is also commemorated on: 19 July and 1 August[7]

Dedications

Early 19th century portrait of Joasaph

The Orthodox Church of St Iosaph in Muddy, Illinois, was built in 1913 and dedicated to the newly consecrated St Joasaph of Belgorod. The spelling "Iosaph" was chosen.[8]

There is a Fellowship of Saint Joasaph of Belgorod in Shanghai.[9]

In 1912 Ivan Vassilievich Skorodumov (1888–1955) was tonsured a monk and named Joasaph in honour of the newly glorified St Joasaph. He later became Archbishop Joasaph of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Paraguay.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ a b St Ioasaph Archived 2001-03-02 at the Wayback Machine at st-jhouse.narod.ru (in Russian), accessed 20 January 2012
  2. ^ a b c d ST. IOSAF THE DIVINE PROTECTOR at angelfire.com, accessed 19 February 2012
  3. ^ St. Ioasaph of Belgorod at fatheralexander.org, accessed 19 February 2012
  4. ^ Dimitri Obolensky, Bread of Exile (Harvill Press, 2003), pp. 22–30
  5. ^ William Furry, Shadows of the Motherland Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine dated August 6, 2009, from illinoistimes.com, accessed 19 February 2012
  6. ^ Complete List of Saints Archived 2012-07-13 at archive.today at pomog.org, accessed 19 February 2012
  7. ^ "Святитель Иоаса́ф, епископ Белгородский". azbyka.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  8. ^ Story of The Church of St. Iosaph in Muddy, Illinois Archived 2008-12-23 at the Wayback Machine at stbasilthegreat.org, accessed 19 February 2012 [dead link]
  9. ^ Saint John of Shanghai 01 at orthodox.org.ph, accessed 19 February 2012 Archived 21 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Archbishop Ioasaph (Ivan Vassilievich Skorodumov), Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Paraguay at rocorstudies.org
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