Athanasius Volkhovsky

Saint Athanasius (in the world Fyodor Pavlovich Volkhovsky, about 1741-1801), a hierarch, was Bishop of Mogilev and Polotsk, also known as Athanasius of Poltava. A widower who became a monk, he was a pastor in newly annexed Belarus, was wrongly denounced and died at Poltava, where his body was preserved incorrupt. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed his local veneration in 2010, and in 2017 his name was entered in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. He is commemorated on 1 (13) January.

Beginnings

He was born at Poltava, in the family of Archpriest Pavel Volkhovsky of the church of Saint Nicholas (died 1764). He studied at the Tver seminary, when Bishop of Tver was his uncle, also Athanasius (Volkhovsky), then at the Kiev Theological Academy, and in 1765 was ordained priest at the church of Saint Nicholas in Poltava. After the death of his wife, on 1 October 1769, he was tonsured at the Saint Elijah Monastery at Boldino near Chernigov, and from 1770 served at the cathedral of Chernigov. From 1776 he was abbot of the Cyril Monastery in Novgorod, from 1781 deputy of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, in 1783 he passed to the Otensk Monastery and then to Vyazhishchi, raised to archimandrite, and from 1785 he was archimandrite of the Yuriev Monastery in Novgorod. On 30 July 1788 he was consecrated Bishop of Staraya Russa, vicar of the Novgorod diocese.

Bishop

On 5 March 1795 he was named Bishop of Mogilev and Polotsk, right after the annexation of Western Belarus to Russia, when a large number of Greek Catholics returned to the Orthodox Church. His main task was to oppose Catholicism and restore the church life of the Orthodox communities. For his labour he received in 1797 the Order of Alexander Nevsky. But in the same June a denunciation reached the Holy Synod, and on the basis of a report by Prince Vasily Khovansky, on 27 August 1797, he was retired to the Mgar Monastery at Lubny, without the right to govern. In 1800, in a state of nervous disorder, he moved to relatives at Poltava, from where he did not return to the monastery, despite the Synod's orders.

He died on 1 (13) January 1801 at Poltava, in the lodging of his relative, the priest John Simonovsky, and was buried in the crypt of the cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross Monastery at Poltava.

Canonization

When Bishop Hilarion came to Priluki and examined the tomb in 1882 (or 1884), he found the body incorrupt. The Synod ordered the coffin taken out of the crypt, a church made there, the relics placed and memorial services held until official canonization. The glorification was planned after the Local Council of 1917-1918, but the revolution prevented it. In 1923 the remains were given to the regional museum, during the war they were taken to the monastery and buried under the floor of the cathedral, and about 1995 they were reburied in the monastery cemetery. In 2009 work on canonization resumed. On 28 May 2010 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blessed his local glorification and veneration, and by decision of the Council of Bishops of 30 November 2017 his name entered the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.