From Lübeck to Ustyug
Procopius was born in the Free City of Lübeck, within the Holy Roman Empire, though his exact birth date and worldly name are not reliably known. One tradition identifies him as Jacob Potharst, the son of a Lübeck merchant, but this identification is unconfirmed, and his surname, date, and place of birth remain uncertain.
Originally a Roman Catholic merchant, he converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the course of his travels. Coming to Veliky Ustyug in the Vladimir-Suzdal lands, he embraced the demanding path of folly for Christ, which he followed for approximately sixty years.
Prophecy and the Ustyug Storm
Procopius became known for miraculous insight. In 1290 he foretold a catastrophe near Veliky Ustyug, associated in the accounts with the fall of a meteorite, together with a tornado and conflagration in the same area. The synaxarion relates that on June 25, 1290, he prayed with intense fervour before an icon, seeking divine protection for the city of Ustyug before the disaster. His warning and intercession established his lasting reputation as a wonderworker.
Relics & Shrines
Procopius reposed on July 8, 1303, at Veliky Ustyug. His incorrupt relics were discovered in the eighteenth century near the Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple in Veliky Ustyug and placed within the church, where they remained in open view for about two hundred years and were held to be the source of numerous healings.
In the 1960s the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia built St. Prokop Church in Hamburg, Germany, honouring this Lübeck-born saint in the land of his birth.
