Cyriacus of Syrino

Holy Venerable Cyriacus of Syrino (Sylia), also called Cyriacus of Kargopol, was the son of a priest in the parish of Chekuevo in the Onega district of the Arkhangelsk province. The year of his birth, like that of the other important events of his life, has remained unknown. Most sources hold that he was born in the last quarter of the fifteenth century and place his labours and death in the sixteenth, but some sources give the day of his death as 28 April 1402.

He was orphaned early. Unused to heavy labour in the fields and unwilling to be a burden to anyone, he decided to enter some monastery of the neighbourhood. The monastery to which the orphan boy came was the Alexander-⁠Oshevensk monastery, forty-⁠two versts from Kargopol. There he was received among the brethren and at his monastic tonsure was given the name Cyril. Under the guidance of an experienced elder he worked at all the monastery's obediences, carrying out with humility and love what he was commanded. In the monastery the monk Cyril learned to read and write, which let him come to know the Holy Scriptures well.

After many years the venerable Cyril left the Oshevensk monastery with the abbot's blessing. The archbishop of Novgorod ordained him a priest. For a time he lived in the village of Kenozero, and then in his native Chekuevo, where he served in the local church. From Chekuevo he moved to the nearby Syria hill, now the village of Syria, where he founded a monastery, built a church in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God and, after many years of labour, in honoured old age, reposed in the Lord.

The relics of the venerable Cyril have been preserved to our day and rest beneath the ground in a chapel near the village of Syria. There also lie the remains of one of his successors, the abbot Cyprian, honoured for his devout life. Believers from the nearby lands make pilgrimages to this holy place every year. The page gives no particular day for his commemoration.