Meletiy Demin

Hieromonk Meletiy Demin (in the world Matvei Ivanovich, 1880-1982) was an ascetic of the settlement of Lokot, in the Bryansk region. He is venerated by the faithful in the Bryansk diocese, without synodal canonization; materials are being prepared for his canonization.

He was born into a large family in the village of Stolbovo in the Bryansk region. According to local tradition the village took its name from an apparition: peasants saw a pillar of fire in the forest, ran there thinking it was a fire, and found an icon of Saint Nicholas on an oak post, from which light rose to the sky. The old man who lived nearby, on the lakeshore, is said to have declared that in that place a great servant of God would be born, a "pillar of Orthodoxy".

He was a follower of the religious and monarchist teaching of Saint John of Kronstadt. He worked as a joiner and carpenter and secretly celebrated priestly services. He was arrested three times. In the 1930s he was condemned to death, escaped from prison, was caught again and served his sentence. In the 1940s he received twenty-⁠five years of camp. After his term he settled in Lokot, to which he prophesied great fame in the future.

He reposed in the Lord in 1982, aged about one hundred and two. The faithful say that myrrh flows at his grave and that healings take place through prayers to him.