Athanasius of Navolok

Saint Athanasius of Navolok, the Righteous, was a holy struggler in the Arkhangelsk region. Nothing is known of his birth and upbringing. He came from the neighbourhood of the town of Kargopol to the river Vaga and settled three versts from the settlement of Verkholedskaya, near the town of Shenkursk. He is commemorated on 31 January and on 1 November, in the synaxis of the saints of the Arkhangelsk metropolis.

Soon he fell gravely ill and died. After forty days he appeared at the same time to four sick people living in different places, healed them, and commanded them to bury his body in the place where it lay. The healed not only buried the holy relics but built a chapel over them, and this was the beginning of the saint's veneration.

People came from far away, took earth from his tomb and anointed themselves with it as with myrrh, and were healed of all their diseases.