John of Uglich

Saint John of Uglich, in the world Ivan Nikiforovich Chepolosov, was a child of the town of Uglich, killed in 1663 at the age of six. He is venerated as a holy martyr by the Russian Church. His commemoration is on 25 June (8 July by the new calendar) and on 23 May (5 June), in the Synaxis of the saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl. The record does not say when or by what act he was canonized, only that his veneration was "officially restored" in 1970, so his veneration seems to belong chiefly to the local diocese.

Childhood

Ivan was born in Uglich into the family of the wealthy merchant Nikifor Grigorievich Chepolosov. His life says that he was beautiful in body and above all full of the fear of God. He lived only six years.

Martyrdom

One day he set out to his teacher of letters and disappeared. They searched for him in the Volga, on the roads and in the forests, but did not find him. The Life says that he was abducted by Rudak, a trusted steward of the boy's father, a resident of the village of Ierusalimskoe near Uglich, who bore a hidden grudge against the father. For sixteen days he kept the child in a chest (or a cellar) with sharp thorns. At night he took him out and whipped him, trying to force him to renounce his parents and call Rudak his father, but the boy would not consent. Some said afterwards that the tormentor pulled out one of his teeth every night. At last Rudak stabbed the boy with a knife, inflicting twenty-⁠four wounds, and with a twenty-⁠fifth he pierced the child's head through to the ears. The murderer tried to hide the body in a marsh.

According to the Life, shepherds found the incorrupt body after eight days. No one could pull the knife out of his head, but after the funeral service, when Rudak approached the body, the knife fell out by itself, and this was taken as a sign that he was the murderer. The child appeared in a dream first to his mother and then to both parents at once, and asked that Rudak be spared, so that he was left alive. It is said, however, that soon afterwards he was eaten alive by worms. The boy was buried on 6 (16) July beside the wooden church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

Relics and veneration

In 1689 Nikifor Chepolosov began to build a stone church of Saint John the Baptist in memory of his son. During the building, the relics of the saint were found and placed first in the wooden church and then in the stone one. It is said that neither the body nor the clothing suffered any damage, except for a small part of a little finger, whereas of the remains of Ivan's brother, buried there earlier, nothing was left.

With the blessing of Metropolitan Jonah, the relics were examined by monks of the Resurrection Monastery of Uglich. The first reports of healings appeared, but soon the relics were closed beneath a slab in a heated side room of the refectory, in the same coffin, by a decree of the metropolitan. According to the Life, this was done because of the struggle against the Old Believers, since John had been baptized according to the old books.

In 1895 Vasily Mikheev's novel "The Child Martyr: A Tale of Uglich" appeared, with illustrations by Mikhail Nesterov, Vasily Surikov and Elizaveta Boehm. In 1970, during the restoration of the church, the relics were found again. Forensic experts established that the death had come from a blow to the head with a sharp object, and the veneration of the saint was officially restored. In 1996 the relics were moved from museum holdings to the newly reopened Korsun church, where they remain today.