Jonah of Klimenets

Venerable Jonah of Klimenets (born Ivan Ivanovich Klimentov, 1464 to 6 June 1534) was a merchant of Novgorod, son of the posadnik John Klimentov, who became a monk and founder of the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Klimenets, on Lake Onega. He is commemorated (Old Style) on 6 June. The source does not say when he was canonized; in 2024 Patriarch Kirill blessed the veneration of the remains found as his holy relics, with the feast of their finding on 29 June New Style.

Life

Son of the Novgorod posadnik John Klimentov, he received a great inheritance from his father and went into trade, travelling with merchant boats on Lake Onega. Saved from a storm on Onega, he founded in 1490, in the place where he had been cast ashore, the Klimenets monastery, where he lived until death as a simple monk. Two churches were built in the monastery, of the Holy Trinity and of Saint Nicholas. In spite of requests, Jonah did not accept the abbacy and reposed a monk in June 1534. Our record gives his birth in 1500, which does not agree with the Russian source, which says 1464.

The relics

In the mid-⁠eighteenth century, at the expense of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a stone church dedicated to the Holy Righteous Zacharias and Elizabeth was built over his relics. In August 2020 Metropolitan Constantine (Goryanov) of Petrozavodsk set up a diocesan commission for the finding of the relics of Saint Jonah. On 24 August 2020 the commission began archaeological excavations in the monastery, under the archaeologist I. V. Melnikov, with photography and filming, for a day and a half. It found remains that had lain in the ground four hundred and eighty-⁠six years, the body and head covered with a leather covering, partly preserved, and part of the coffin; the next day the remains of the legs were also found. Architectural-⁠historical, anthropological, isotopic and forensic studies followed, the results of which were sent to the Synodal Commission for Canonization, and one of its members, V. N. Zvyagin, concluded that the relics certainly belong to Saint Jonah of Klimenets. On 9 January 2024 Patriarch Kirill blessed "the veneration of the remains found in the church of the Holy Righteous Zacharias and Elizabeth of the Klimenets monastery as the holy relics of Saint Jonah of Klimenets", with the feast of the finding of the relics on 29 June New Style.