Simon of Volomsk

Venerable Simon of Volomsk (in the world Simeon Mikhailov) was the founder and abbot of the Simon-⁠Volomsk Exaltation of the Cross hermitage in the Vologda region, born on 18 September 1585 and died as a martyr on 12 July 1641. He is venerated as one of the venerable saints of the Russian Church, in the Synaxis of the locally venerated saints of Vologda. His commemoration is kept on 12 July by the old calendar, the day of his death.

Simeon Mikhailov was born near Volokolamsk, on the estate of the Joseph-⁠Volokolamsk monastery. In the Time of Troubles his family was left without means of living. The saint moved to Moscow, learned the tailor's trade, then moved to Veliky Ustyug. Later he lived at the Solovki monastery and at the Chernogorsk Makariev monastery on the Pinega, where in 1609 he received monastic tonsure with the name Simon. The abbot of the Chernogorsk monastery, Makary, blessed Simon for the hermit's life. Searching for a place for a hermitage, the saint visited Novgorod, Ladoga, Korela, Moscow, Vologda and Veliky Ustyug. 65 km southwest of Veliky Ustyug, in the Volomsk forests on the river Kichmenga, on 26 July 1613 Simon set up a cell, around which the Exaltation of the Cross monastery later grew. According to the Serbian source, the place was found, by a detail, 65 km from the town.

Five years after the founding of the hermitage the brethren began to gather to Simon. The appearance of the monastery aroused the anger of the local people, who laid claim to those lands. They tried to drive out the monks, but Simon received from Tsar Michael Fyodorovich a charter of grant for the lands within a radius of 10 versts around the monastery. This did not end the conflict. The peasants burned the monastery church. Later they tried to take the tsar's charter from the saint. Venerable Simon was tortured and then beheaded; the chronicle says that they tormented him much, mocking him, pierced his holy body with knives and in the end cut off his honourable head and cast the body near his cell.