Jonah of Kazan

Holy Venerable Jonah of Kazan, in the world the boyar John Zastolsky, is commemorated together with his son, Venerable Nectarius, in the world Nestor. When Saint Gurias the Hierarch († 1563, commemorated on 5 December) set out for the newly founded diocese of Kazan, the boyar John Zastolsky went with him. Under the spiritual guidance of Saint Gurias, John led a virtuous and pious life. He feared sin, loved justice and was strictly honest. In the fear of God he brought up his son Nestor.

The gentle youth was an ascetic from childhood: he wore a hair shirt, kept the fasts and loved to pray in church. With the father's consent, Nestor received monastic tonsure with the name Nectarius and died young. His father John also became a monk, with the name Jonah. Before his death he left the instruction that he should be buried beside Saint Gurias, near the grave where Nectarius had been laid. When, in 1595, the relics of the holy hierarchs Gurias and Barsanuphius were opened, the bodies and garments of the monks Jonah and Nectarius were found incorrupt, and were left under the ground in the chapel of the Transfiguration monastery of Kazan (the chapel had been built by Jonah over the grave of Saint Gurias). They are mentioned in the service of Saint Gurias: "Two monks struggled well toward God, Jonah and Nectarius, one the father of the other, who served you faithfully in the world and after your death held faith in you without doubt and built over your grave a house of stone. In it they themselves were buried near you, honoured by God with much incorruption."

The Church commemorates Venerable Jonah on 17 October, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan, and on the movable day of 18 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver.