Iosif Belyaev

Iosif Belyaev was a Russian archimandrite, abbot of the Skete of St Andrew on Athos from 1891 until his death, builder of the skete's cathedral. He was born in 1845 at Nikolskoe, Uglich district, Yaroslavl province, and reposed in 1908. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Ivan Ivanovich in the world, from childhood he served an uncle, a merchant at Moscow. Raised in the spirit of the Church, he was not drawn by the deceits of the world. In 1867, aged twenty-⁠two, he came to the Skete of St Andrew, in the time of the abbot Feodorit. He was at first a singer and good canonarch, then head of the lithography and an engraver. After the death of the abbot Feoklit on 18 October 1891, on 3 December he was elected abbot, while head of the metochion in St Petersburg. There he recorded, as a witness, the healings worked by the wonderworking icon, in the book Description. On 1 February 1892 Vatopaidi Monastery, ruling authority over the skete, confirmed him as abbot; in April 1894 he was raised to archimandrite. His greatest labour for the brethren, pilgrims and the poor was the building of the great cathedral of the Holy Apostle Andrew, with two side chapels and a church beneath the cathedral, and of the hospital building. He reposed in peace, after calling some of the older brethren, embracing each, thanking them for their labours and obedience, and falling silent.