Venerable Longinus of Yarenga
died October 29, 1561
A monk of the northern Russian monastic tradition honored as a wonderworker of Yarenga.
Our Venerable Father Longinus, Wonderworker of Yarenga
Life
Longinus of Yarenga (also rendered Loggin) was a sixteenth-century Russian monk of the Solovki Monastery on the White Sea, remembered as a wonderworker of the northern Russian monastic tradition. Russian sources describe him as an unlettered man ("человек некнижный") who lived as a disciple under the abbacy of Philip — the future Metropolitan Philip of Moscow — during Philip's monastic reform at Solovki in the 1540s and 1550s.
In 1561 Longinus drowned together with a fellow monk, John, when a severe storm wrecked their vessels as they returned to Solovki by sea carrying building materials. Their bodies were cast ashore on the Karelian coast near the settlement of Yarenga, roughly 120 kilometres from the monastery, where both were buried. Their grave drew monks and grew into a monastery, and by the early seventeenth century numerous miracles were reported at their relics.
He is commemorated on July 3 (the feast established at the 1638 translation of his relics) and on October 16, and is numbered among the assemblies of the Novgorod, Karelian, and Solovki saints.
Troparion1 hymnReadHide
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 Longinus, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!
Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).
Timeline5 momentsReadHide
- 1540s–1550sDisciple at SolovkiLonginus lives as a monk of the Solovki Monastery under Abbot Philip, the future Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, during Philip's monastic reform.
- October 29, 1561Drowning at seaReturning to Solovki by sea with the monk John, Longinus drowns when a severe storm wrecks their vessels; their bodies are cast ashore near Yarenga and buried there.
- 1625Reports of miraclesAccounts of miraculous healings at the relics reach Patriarch Filaret, who orders an ecclesiastical investigation.
- July 2, 1638Translation of relicsThe relics of John and Longinus are solemnly translated to a newly constructed wooden church at Yarenga, and the principal feast is established on July 3.
- 1764Closure of the monasteryThe Yarenga monastery, long administered by Solovki, is closed and becomes a parish church.
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