Iustin Solomatin

Iustin Solomatin was a Russian schemaarchimandrite, abbot of St Panteleimon Monastery from 1940 until his death, born in 1878 into a peasant family at Studenets, Ryazan province, who restored the monastery's link with the Moscow Patriarchate. He reposed on 3 August 1958. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Ivan Semyonovich in the world, he reached Athos on 23 December 1896, aged eighteen, and was received at St Panteleimon, where the elders put him to the silversmith's workshop, in which he became a perfect craftsman. After the death of the deputy Ioannikii (Kutirev) on 12 December 1937, he was chosen deputy by lot; on 5 March 1938 he was tonsured into the schema. In 1940, after the death of the abbot Misail, on 1 April he was raised abbot and archimandrite by Metropolitan Hierotheos. He sent a letter of greeting to the Patriarch of Moscow, and thus, after twenty-⁠seven years of separation, the link between the Russian monastery on Athos and the Mother Church in Russia was restored. He reposed on 3 August 1958.