Joasaph of Borovsk

Holy Venerable Martyr Joasaph of Borovsk (died 5 July 1610) was archimandrite of the Trinity-⁠Saint Sergius Lavra from 1605 to 1610, one of the inspirers of its defence in the Time of Troubles, and died in the siege of the Monastery of Saint Paphnutius at Borovsk. He was canonized in 1981 and included, as a venerable martyr, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh.

By 1592 at the latest he had received monastic tonsure at the Monastery of Saint Paphnutius of Borovsk, where he became hegumen. He took part in the Zemsky Sobor of 1598, which elected Boris Godunov tsar. In 1605 he became abbot of the Trinity-⁠Saint Sergius Lavra and was raised to the rank of archimandrite.

When in 1608 the bands of the Tushino thief, the pretender Dmitry II, under the command of Jan Sapieha, approached the Lavra, Joasaph firmly refused to surrender the monastery and became the spiritual inspiration and one of the organizers of its defence, which lasted from 23 September 1608 to 12 January 1610, almost sixteen months. He grounded his refusal in the defence of Orthodoxy against the Latin heretics, and his answer to Sapieha lifted spirits across the whole country. During the siege the archimandrite took part in the council of the commanders, where the plan of defence was drawn up. He also sent letters to the surrounding districts, calling for loyalty to Tsar Vasily Shuisky. He heard the confessions of gravely wounded soldiers and tonsured them as monks, and he looked after the food of the lay people sheltering within the walls. He calmed the quarrels that sometimes broke out between the soldiers and the monks. By his work he greatly helped to keep up the courage of the defenders.

After the siege ended, Joasaph, with the blessing of Patriarch Hermogenes, retired to the Monastery of Saint Paphnutius at Borovsk. Soon the bands of Dmitry II and Sapieha appeared there as well. Joasaph again urged the brethren to resist the enemy. But on 5 July 1610 the junior commanders Yakov Zmeyev and Afanasy Chelishchev, in league with the invaders, opened the monastery gates to the besiegers, who burst in. The chief commander, Prince Mikhail Konstantinovich Volkonsky, resisted to the end and died of his wounds. According to the New Chronicle, twelve thousand people perished in the monastery, Joasaph among them.