Arephas of Verkhoturye

Venerable Arephas of Verkhoturye, in the world Athanasius Tikhonovich Katargin, was archimandrite of the monastery of Saint Nicholas at Verkhoturye in the Urals. He fell asleep on 15 (28) May 1903. He is venerated as a local saint among the venerable, in the Synaxis of Siberian Saints. The Church commemorates him, by the old calendar, on 15 May, on 10 June (Synaxis of Siberian Saints) and on 7 August (Synaxis of the Saints of Valaam).

He was born into a peasant family and in 1889 entered the Valaam monastery as a novice. His mentor was the elder Ioannicius (Chebotarev), in the schema Elias, and his obedience was in the monastery's economy. On 12 November 1893 Athanasius received monastic tonsure with the name Arephas. In the same year he was sent to the Urals together with the hieromonk Job, who had been appointed abbot of the Saint Nicholas monastery at Verkhoturye. After arrival, on 26 December 1893, Arephas was ordained hierodeacon, and on 15 October 1895 hieromonk.

In the monastery he was librarian and had the obedience of candle-⁠keeper. In September 1898 he received the priestly belt. After Job returned to Valaam in June 1899, he was elected abbot of the monastery, and on 6 May 1900 was raised to the rank of archimandrite. During his governance an active building programme began: two stone residential buildings, hostels for pilgrims, the building of the parish school and of a school for deaf-⁠mute children, as well as many farm buildings. The monastery was surrounded by a stone wall. In his time the monastery archive, kept from 1762, was put in order, and a description of the monastery was begun for the anniversary of 1904, three hundred years since its founding and two hundred since the translation into it of the relics of the righteous Simeon of Verkhoturye.

Archimandrite Arephas fell asleep on 15 May 1903 and was buried in the brotherhood cemetery of the monastery. In 1984 he was canonized as a locally venerated saint, in the Synaxis of Siberian Saints. In 1994 the relics of Venerable Arephas were found at the monastery of Saint Nicholas.