Jonah of Vyatka

Holy Hierarch Jonah of Vyatka was Archbishop of Vyatka and Great Perm in the second half of the seventeenth century, a builder of churches and a pastor of devout life. He reposed in 1699.

He was born in 1635 and in 1653 was tonsured a monk. He was cellarer of the Makaryev Holy Trinity monastery in Kalyazin, and from 1668 archimandrite of the Dormition monastery in Tikhvin. On 23 August 1674 he was consecrated Bishop of Vyatka and Great Perm, and on 12 March 1682 he was raised to the rank of archbishop.

He took great care for the building of churches in Khlynov, now called Kirov, in Slobodskoy and in other towns and monasteries of the region. He summoned masons from Moscow, and in his time the Holy Trinity cathedral in Khlynov was raised, together with the bishop's house and its church of Saint Alexis, the man of God. In 1684 work began on a stone church at the Dormition monastery of Saint Tryphon, and then the relics of its founder, Tryphon of Vyatka († 1612), were found. In 1690 building was done at the Epiphany monastery of Slobodskoy, in 1693 the stone church of the Saviour Not Made by Hands in the Trinity parish, and in 1696 the foundations were laid for a stone church of Tsar Constantine, in place of the wooden one burned in a fire.

He was often summoned to Moscow by the tsar and the patriarch on church business and returned with rich gifts and church vessels. In the time of Tsar Feodor Alekseyevich and Patriarch Joachim the Transfiguration and Ascension monasteries, with 344 households, were granted to him. He gathered a great library of printed books and manuscripts. He was known for his devout life and his zeal for the faith, and he watched strictly over good order in monastic life.

He fell asleep in the Lord on 8 October 1699 and was buried on 3 December in the Trinity cathedral, on the right side of the altar. In 1771 the voivode Shcherbachev and the treasurer Chernavsky made him a tomb with an epitaph in verse. The people of the region venerated his memory with devotion, as that of a protector who prays for them even after death. Through his prayers a hopelessly sick man of Vyatka was healed, having clearly heard a voice commanding him to have a memorial service served for Archbishop Jonah. The saint is commemorated on 18 October (new style).