Saints Jonah and Nectarius of Kazan

Life under Saint Gurias

When Saint Gurias was sent to the newly established Kazan diocese, the boyar John Zastolsky went with him. Under the spiritual guidance of Saint Gurias, John led a virtuous and pious life: the sources record that he avoided sin, loved truth, and was strictly honest.

John raised his son Nestor in the fear of God. According to the tradition, the youth was an ascetic from childhood — he wore a hair-shirt, kept the fasts, and loved to pray in church. With his father's consent, Nestor was tonsured a monk and given the name Nectarius. He died at a young age and was buried near the grave of Saint Gurias.

John himself was later tonsured into monasticism with the name Jonah. Before his death he left instructions that he too be buried near Saint Gurias. No specific year of tonsure or repose is recorded in the available sources for either Jonah or Nectarius.

Relics & Shrines

Jonah had built a chapel over the grave of Saint Gurias at the Kazan Savior-Transfiguration monastery, and both he and his son were buried there. At the uncovering of the relics of Saints Gurias and Barsanuphius in 1595, the incorrupt bodies and clothing of Saints Jonah and Nectarius were also found.

Their relics were left beneath a crypt in the chapel that Jonah had raised over the grave of Saint Gurias. This uncovering is treated as the basis of their veneration as saints, alongside the Kazan hierarchs.

Historical context

The Kazan diocese was established in the mid-sixteenth century following the incorporation of the Khanate of Kazan. Saint Gurias (born Grigory Grigoryevich Rugotin, c. 1500, Radonezh; died December 5, 1563) was appointed the first Archbishop of Kazan and Svyazhsk on February 3, 1555; his successor was Herman of Kazan.

As companions and spiritual children of Saint Gurias in the Kazan mission, Jonah and Nectarius are numbered among the early monastic saints of the region, and their commemoration is tied to that of the founding hierarchs of Kazan.