Dionysius of Obnora

Venerable Martyr Dionysius of Obnora was a monk of the Pavlov-⁠Obnorsk monastery, on the bank of the river Nurma near where it flows into the Obnora (today the Gryazovets district of the Vologda region), and died a martyr in 1538. He is commemorated on 23 January.

Dionysius was the first of the venerable martyrs of Obnora to suffer at the hands of the Kazan Tatars, in the invasion of the Vologda lands in January 1538, when the Pavlov-⁠Obnorsk monastery was laid waste.

The Life of Saint Paul of Obnora relates, in its twentieth miracle, “On the coming of the barbarians and the capture of the monastery of the venerable one,” that at the evening reading of the Hours in the refectory the elder Daniel saw mounted Tatars approaching the monastery. The monks bade one another farewell and began to put on the schema. Dionysius, who had run out of the refectory, was beheaded by the Tatars.