Simon of Soiga

Venerable Simon of Soiga (in the world the son of Nikita Tentyukov, died 1562) was a monk of the Cornelius Monastery at Komel and the founder of the Transfiguration Monastery on the river Soiga, near its confluence with the Vychegda. He was a disciple of Venerable Cornelius of Komel, hence of the Komel branch of disciples of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. In the oldest Russian manuscript calendars of the seventeenth century he is called a new wonderworker. The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized him on 3 February 2016, for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated on 24 November, which is 7 December by the new calendar.

Life

He was born at Solvychegodsk, in the family of Nikita Tentyukov, around 1500. The grace of God rested on him from childhood, and he fled the tumult of the world. In youth he left his parents' house and came to Venerable Cornelius of Komel, in the monastery of strict rule, a model of fifteenth-⁠century monastic life. He was tonsured a monk and did his obediences among the disciples of Cornelius: Gennady of Kostroma, Irodion of Iloezer, Adrian of Poshekhonye and Laurence of Komel.

After the death of his teacher, Simon, a companion of Venerable Longinus, went with him into the wilderness. They stopped for a time at the Saints Boris and Gleb Monastery at Solvychegodsk, where among the brethren were many of his relatives, then came to the mouth of the river Koryazhemka, where Longinus decided to remain. Simon helped him build a cell and a chapel, and himself moved to the mouth of the river Soiga. The chronicle in the local church says that on 16 September 1539 Abbot Simon came to the wild forest on the bank of the Vychegda, set up the church of the Transfiguration on 8 May 1541, consecrated on 17 May 1541 in the time of Archbishop Dosifei of Rostov. Establishing a hermitage beside the church, he was chosen abbot by the brethren and led it for twenty years.

He fell asleep on 24 November 1562, the feast of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr, and was buried in his monastery, in the church dedicated to Saint Catherine. The hermitage was abolished in 1791 and turned into a parish church. His relics lie in the monastery church. He is the heavenly patron of the former Metropolitan Simon of Murmansk, who celebrated his memory with an evening vigil. In 2016 he was numbered among the saints venerated throughout the Church.