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Venerable (Monastic)16th century

Saint Bogolep of Uglich

15th–16th centuries

Also known as Bogolep, disciple of Paisius of Uglich

A disciple of Saint Paisius of Uglich, connected in tradition with the finding of a wonderworking Protection icon.

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Bogolep of Uglich, Disciple of Saint Paisius

Life

Saint Bogolep of Uglich was a Russian monastic of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and a disciple of Saint Paisius of Uglich. He lived at the Uglich Monastery of the Theophany of the Lord, where, having worked as a baker before entering monastic life, he continued in that same humble obedience within the community.

Tradition associates him most closely with the finding of a wonderworking icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, which by the account of the Yaroslavl Paterikon he discovered on the bank of the Volga in 1482. Honored for his piety and humility, he was ordained to the priesthood and tonsured into the great schema before his repose, and his local veneration was later formally affirmed in the modern era.

Troparion1 hymnReadHide
TroparionTone 8

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile,
and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance.
By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe!
O our holy father Bogolep, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline4 momentsReadHide
  1. 15th–16th centuriesMonastic life at UglichBogolep entered the Uglich Monastery of the Theophany of the Lord as a disciple of Saint Paisius of Uglich. Having been a baker in the world, he was assigned the same work as his monastic obedience.
  2. 1482Finding of the Protection iconBy tradition recorded in the Yaroslavl Paterikon (1912), while going early one morning to the Volga for water he saw an icon of the Theotokos on the shore beneath the mountain. He reported it to Saint Paisius, and the wonderworking Icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos was brought into the monastery.
  3. before his reposePriesthood and the schemaOn account of his piety and humility he was ordained to the priesthood and was tonsured into the great schema.
  4. March 10, 1964Affirmation of venerationHis local canonization was confirmed by the inclusion of his name in the Synaxis of the Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints, by the decision of Patriarch Alexei I of Moscow and the Holy Synod.

Contributions & Legacy

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The Protection Icon

The defining event of Saint Bogolep's life, as transmitted in the Yaroslavl Paterikon, is the discovery of a wonderworking icon of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in 1482. The account relates that a baker of the Uglich Theophany Monastery went down to the Volga early in the morning to draw water and found the icon on the riverbank; that baker was Saint Bogolep.

He carried news of the find to his elder, Saint Paisius, and by tradition the monks Adrian and Vassian helped bring the icon into the monastery, where it became associated with the community's Protection church.

Commemoration

Saint Bogolep is commemorated on August 22. The synaxarion suggests this date may have been chosen because the fourth-century martyr Theoprepios — whose Greek name corresponds in meaning to the Slavic 'Bogolep,' rendered roughly as 'becoming to God' — is commemorated on that day, together with the martyr Agathonikos of Nicomedia.

As a member of the Synaxis of the Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints, he is also commemorated with that assembly, kept on May 23.

Companions2 figuresShowHide
Spiritual father: His elder at the Uglich Theophany Monastery, to whom Bogolep reported the finding of the wonderworking Protection icon.
Paisiusof Uglich
Fellow disciple of Saint Paisius of Uglich in the same monastic circle.
Venerable Bassianof Uglich
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Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints