Ignatius of Vologda

Saint Ignatius of Vologda (born Ivan Andreevich, about 1477 to 1522/1525), also called Ignatius of Prilutsky or of Uglich, was the son of Prince Andrei Vasilievich of Uglich, brother of Grand Prince Ivan III, and of Princess Elena Romanovna. A prisoner throughout his youth, he died as a monk in the schema at Vologda. He is venerated in the Russian Church as a venerable saint, but according to our sources there was no canonization for the whole Church, and the date of any glorification is not known.

The prison

In 1491 Grand Prince Ivan III imprisoned Prince Andrei Vasilievich because for some reason he had not sent the army demanded of him against the Tatars. His children, Ivan and Dimitri, he condemned to life imprisonment at Pereslavl-⁠Zalessky. Prince Andrei died in prison after three years. The chronicle of Uglich tells that the people of Uglich, discontented with the oppression of the grand prince's governor, plotted to free the children, but the grand prince learned of it and resettled many of them in other towns. According to the Life, the brothers were moved from Pereslavl to Beloozero and then to Vologda.

The Life says that Ivan comforted his brother Dimitri, telling him not to grieve at the prison and the chains, since God had put it in the heart of their uncle, the grand prince, to do this for the benefit of their souls, making it impossible for them to care any longer for the vanities of the world. Let them pray to the Lord to grant them the grace to bear their suffering with joy in His name and to escape eternal torments.

The schema and repose

He spent thirty years in captivity. According to the Life, the brothers were not parted until Ivan's death. Shortly before his death he was tonsured into the schema by Abbot Misail of the Spaso-⁠Prilutsky monastery, with the name Ignatius. Some sources give his death on 19 May 1522, others in 1523 or 1525. Along with the Life, manuscripts contain seven undated miracles after his death. He was buried near the grave of Saint Demetrius of Prilutsky in the Spaso-⁠Prilutsky monastery, and a stone tomb similar to Demetrius's was set over his grave. His brother Dimitri Andreevich was released in December 1540, died in 1543 or 1544 and was buried near him.

Veneration

His veneration began immediately after his death, but there are no precise data on a canonization. The earliest testimony of veneration across Russia is a note under 19 May about "the celebration of the memory of the venerable" in the Typikon of the services of the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, drawn up at the order of Patriarch Philaret in 1621, where he is called a "new wonderworker". There was no canonization for the whole Church. In the first half of the eighteenth century altars dedicated to him are known, among them in the lower church of the Saviour Cathedral of the Spaso-⁠Prilutsky monastery, where he is buried. His name is in the calendar of the Russian Church, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda (celebration established in 1841) and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl (established in 1964). He is commemorated on 19 May and, on the third Sunday after Pentecost, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda.

The gravestone was lost after the monastery was closed in 1924; today, in the lower church, a wooden marker stands over the grave, and beside it are kept the chains which, according to tradition, he wore. His relics are in the lower church dedicated to Saint Demetrius of Prilutsky.