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Artemius of Verkola

Russian child saint (1532–1544)

Field	Value
honorific_prefix	Righteous
name	Artemius of Verkola
caption	Russian hagiographic icon, 17th century
image	Artemy of Verkola.jpeg
birth_date	1532
death_date	23 June 1545
feast_day	23 June
venerated_in	Eastern Orthodox Church
birth_place	Verkola, Russia
death_place	Verkola, Russia
patronage	Seriously ill; eye diseases; sick children; Verkola
canonized_date
canonized_by	Russian Orthodox Church

Artemius of Verkola (; 1532 – 23 June 1545) is a Russian child saint venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Life

Artemius was born in 1532 in the village of Verkola in the Russian North (now Pinezhsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast). His family were peasants. His father's name was Kosma, nicknamed Maly (); his mother was named Apollinaria. In addition, according to legend, the sister of Artemius was the righteous maiden , who was also famous for posthumous miracles. Nothing is known about Artemius' life, except for his rejection of children's games, meekness, good faith, obedience to his parents, and diligence, as noted in his Life.

On 23 June 1545, when Artemius was 12 years old, the boy was harrowing a field with his father. At that time, a strong thunderstorm began, lightning struck and Artemius fell dead. The superstitious villagers of Verkola considered the unexpected death of the boy a punishment for some secret sins, so they left his body in the forest without funeral service and burial, barely covered with brushwood and birch bark and fenced. According to folk belief, the burial of those who died from a thunderstorm in a common cemetery could bring misfortune to the inhabitants of the village. Archaeological excavations have shown that in the 16th century, not far from Verkola, there was a cemetery of the mortgaged dead buried in a log cabin.

Finding relics and veneration

35 years after his death, in 1577, a local deacon named Agafonik saw a light emanating from the boy's resting place and discovered the boy's body showed no sign of decay. Miracles of healing happened to people who venerated the boy's relics and he was proclaimed a saint. The canonization of the saint took place around 1619, when the Life of the saint was completed.

In 1648, by order of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich of Russia, the St. Artemius of Verkola Monastery was founded, and the relics of the saint were moved to the monastery on 17 November. The monastery was later closed in 1919 following the October Revolution and the relics were hidden in 1920. Services resumed in 1990.

Notes

Literature

References

"Saint Artemy of Verkola".

Info: Wikipedia Source

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1532-births 1545-deaths 16th-century-russian-people deaths-from-lightning-strikes russian-orthodox-child-saints russian-saints-of-the-eastern-orthodox-church

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