Amphilochius of Glushitsa

Venerable Amphilochius of Glushitsa (Anfilofy) was a monk, a companion in labour of Saint Dionysius of Glushitsa, and died on 25 October 1452. He is remembered on 3 June and on 12 October, in the synaxis of the saints of Vologda. The main sources on him are the Tale of the Spaso-⁠Kamenny monastery, composed by Paisius Yaroslavov about 1481, and the life of Dionysius of Glushitsa, written by the deacon Irinarkh, a monk of the Intercession monastery at Glushitsa, about 1495, at the command of the elders of the monastery.

Life

It is not known whether Amphilochius took part in composing the life of Dionysius. Irinarkh writes that he learned from his fathers, Amphilochius, Macarius and Michael, who had seen the saint, and collected what he heard from some who had told of these things to his disciples. It is known that Amphilochius, already a hieromonk, came from Great Ustyug to Dionysius, at the Intercession monastery which the latter had founded, and asked his blessing to be a novice in the monastery. Later he became Dionysius's closest disciple and friend, and together they founded the Sosnovets monastery of the Forerunner at Glushitsa.

In 1437, on his deathbed, Dionysius entrusted to Amphilochius the "eldership" of the monasteries of the Forerunner and of the Intercession. It is not known for certain whether Amphilochius became abbot: the life says that abbot of the "great lavra", that is, of the Intercession monastery, became the monk Macarius, and by Dionysius's testament both monasteries were to have a single abbot. Amphilochius was buried in the church of the Forerunner of the Sosnovets monastery, beside Saint Dionysius (today only the foundation of the church remains).

His likeness

By tradition he is painted in full monastic dress, with boots, his right hand blessing and a scroll in the left. On icons he is usually with Dionysius of Glushitsa and resembles him: elderly, with a beard like that of Saint Basil, in a brown robe. One of the oldest icons with the two saints and their life is from the village of Velikiy Dvor, in the Vologda region, of the seventeenth century.