Anthony of Vologda

Saint Anthony was bishop of Vologda and Great Perm, born in 1520 and died in 1587 or 1588 (according to Stroev, in 1587). He is venerated as a hierarch and commemorated on 26 October, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda (since 1841) and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Perm (since 2023).

Anthony, in the world Alexeev, was a disciple of Venerable Gerasim of Boldino, founder of the Holy Trinity Boldin monastery at Dorogobuzh. He was raised in the spirit of piety and strict monastic life. He wrote the life of his mentor. After the death of Joasaph, the successor of Saint Gerasim, he was chosen abbot by the brethren. He governed the Dorogobuzh monastery, in the rank of hegumen, from 1569 until October 1585. When, after Bishop Barlaam I, the see of Vologda fell vacant, Anthony was judged by a council of hierarchs worthy to fill it for his much virtuous life and was ordained bishop of Vologda.

He shepherded only two years. As the author of his life tells, in this short time, by his fatherly care for the good of those he shepherded, by gentleness of nature and conduct, by unfeigned justice, by kindness and mercy toward the poor, he won the great love and respect of all. With his blessing the Vladimir-⁠Zaonikiev hermitage was founded, on the place of the appearance of the icon of the Mother of God to the villager Hilarion, who later received the monastic habit with the name Joseph. Already in complete exhaustion, Saint Anthony consecrated the side chapel dedicated to the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist in the Saint Sophia cathedral of Vologda. Until the last day he went daily to the newly consecrated church for all the services; there he celebrated his last Divine Liturgy. He died in 1587 or 1588 and was buried in the cathedral, beside the north wall.

In the handwritten book The Life of the Vologda Wonderworkers, kept in the cathedral, it was said that from his honourable grave the faithful receive healings to this day, those held by any illness, through the saint's prayers. According to the account of the monk Dionysius of the Boldino monastery, Saint Anthony, together with Venerable Gerasim, appeared to him during an illness and drove away from him the dark powers, and the illness left him. In 1841 Saint Anthony's name was entered in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda, established with the blessing of Bishop Innocent (Borisov) of Vologda; since 2023 he has been part of the synaxis of the saints of Perm. On 9 September 1998, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, the saint's relics were found, and on 26 September were moved in a solemn procession from the Saint Sophia cathedral to the church of Saint Nicholas in Vladychnaya Sloboda in Vologda, where they remained until 3 December 2016. Since 4 December 2016 the relics have been in the Resurrection winter cathedral of Vologda, returned to the Church. A rare icon of him alone, from the end of the seventeenth century, from the church of Saint Nicholas Zolotokrestovskaya in Vologda, now in the Vologda museum, bears the inscription: The image of Saint Anthony, bishop of Vologda and Great Perm; usually he is depicted in a group of saints.