Avakum of Cherkasy

Venerable Confessor Avvakum of Cherkasy (Starov, in the world Dimitry, in monasticism Dosifei, 1877-1964) was a schema-⁠archimandrite, the last abbot of the Ascension Monastery at Moshnohirsk, near Cherkasy, and spent ten years in camps. He was glorified locally in the Cherkasy diocese by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 27 December 2021; the Synod entered his name in the Church calendar in November 2022, with commemoration on 25 October (7 November by the new calendar), and at the Lebedyn Monastery he is commemorated also on 21 July, the day of his repose.

He was born on 25 October 1877 into a peasant family in the village of Verhuny, Cherkasy district, Kyiv province, and received in monasticism the name Dosifei, and in the schema Avvakum. He was the last abbot of the Ascension Monastery at Moshnohirsk, near the city of Cherkasy, and dean of the diocesan monasteries of right-⁠bank Ukraine. Between 1937 and 1947 he was imprisoned in the Solovki camp and others. A hierarch of our day says of him that he bore humiliations and mockery, did not depart from his convictions and did not sell his conscience for peace.

After his release he settled at Cherkasy and guided the city's clergy and many priests and believers who came to him from all over. He fell asleep on 21 July 1964 at the Saint Nicholas Convent in Lebedyn, where his relics rest. He was venerated there, and in 2021 the Synod numbered him among the locally venerated saints of the Cherkasy diocese. On 21 July 2025, on the day of his commemoration, the Liturgy and a procession with his relics were served at Lebedyn, in the presence of several hierarchs.