Irinei Kanatnikov

Irinei Kanatnikov was a Russian monk of St Panteleimon Monastery, born in 1850 in the village of Trofimovka, Makaryev district, Nizhny Novgorod province, in a peasant family. He reposed on 15 January 1898. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Ivan Efimovich in the world, he grew up at Vasilsursk with a grandmother and finished primary school with distinction, but his parents would not let him go to the gymnasium and put him to trade. He regretted it but kept studying on his own and loved reading. He began monastic life at the Gethsemane skete of the Holy Trinity Lavra, where in 1871 he was tonsured a rassophore with the name Irinei; the stories of monks who had been on Athos drew him to the Holy Mountain. He reached it on 6 March 1874 and asked to enter St Panteleimon. He was an exemplary monk, loved the services and almost always wept with tenderness at the chanting. He constantly humbled himself before people and counted himself the last of sinners. He wrote verse but thought it worthless. He reposed on 15 January 1898.