Cassian of Muezero

Holy Venerable Cassian of Muezero is an ascetic of the Russian North about whom very little is known. He is commemorated on 11 July (new style, a movable day), in the Synaxis of the Saints of Novgorod.

In the south-⁠west of the White Sea district, on lake Muezero, lies the hard-⁠to-⁠reach Trinity Island. According to historical research, at the end of the sixteenth century, on this island, Venerable Cassian founded the Muezero monastery for men, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the monks raised another church, of Saint Nicholas the Hierarch, then a chapel of the Saviour Not Made by Hands, built of logs over two huge veneration crosses, about four metres high. After the repose of Venerable Cassian a tomb chapel was raised over his relics, preserved to this day through the care of the superiors of the Kem monastery of the Annunciation of the New Martyrs and of Orthodox pilgrims.

Cassian stands out from the other saints of the Russian North chiefly by being little known and full of mystery. As is stated on a website about Solovki, the time and circumstances of his life are unknown. The time and place of his canonization also remain unknown. Various prayer books give contradictory data, the sixteenth or the seventeenth century. He has been entered in the Synaxis of the Saints of Solovki and of Novgorod. The Holy Hieromartyr Nikodim (Kononov), archbishop of Belgorod, wrote in the "Arkhangelsk Paterikon": "Cassian was a monk of the Solovki monastery, struggled and died on the island of Shuya, in the Kem region." There it is also said that the venerable one's relics were moved to the Antoniev-⁠Siya monastery by Saint Theodosius of Siya, in the time of his abbacy. Now the saint's relics have been found by believers in another place, on Trinity Island.