Saint Joasaph of Belgorod St. Joasaph was born on September 8, 1705 in the city of Priluki in the Poltava province, on the day of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin. He was given the name Joachim. His parents were pious people. His father came from the ancient and renowned Gorlenko family, who faithfully served the Russian sovereigns. His great-grandfather, the Cossack Lazarus Gorlenko, ended his life as a martyr for his faithfulness to the Tsar, being hacked to pieces by rebels. The saint’s mother was the daughter of the famous Cossack military leader Daniel Apostol. Joachim knew grief and deprivation, because his father, who served under Peter the Great, often became the victim of calumny, as a result of which the Tsar would favor him and then exile him. Due to this the Gorlenko estates would often be either taken away or seized by malicious people in power. Only when Empress Elizabeth I came to the throne was the Gorlenko family able to live a calm and peaceful life. The parents, Andrei and Maria, had eight children. Joachim was the first-born and was chosen by God from birth. This was revealed in a vision seen by his father. At the age of seven Joachim was sent to study in the Kiev Academy, while his father pondered how best to arrange his sons future. It was evening and the sun was setting. Suddenly at the edge of the sky Andrei Dmitriyevich saw in the air the Mother of God, and in front of Her his Joachim, praying on his knees. The Holy Virgin, looking down kindly upon the boy, said: “Thy prayer finds favor with Me.” At that moment an angel flew down from heaven and covered the boy with a bishop’s mantle. While studying at the Kiev Academy, Joachim received a general and a theological education in the spirit of traditional Orthodoxy and love of the homeland. The directors and instructors at the Academy were learned monks. Upon graduating from the Academy, Joachim became a monk with the name of Joasaph. He then loved in various Kievan monasteries and also taught at the Kive Academy. In 1737 he was transferred to Moscow and first appointed abbot of the Lubensky Monastery, and then in 1745 of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. St. Joasaph spent eleven years in monastic service, which served as excellent preparation for his future hierarchal duties. He found both monasteries in a run-down condition and worked hard to make them flourish, both in the repair of old buildings and in the revival of internal monastic life. There was lack of discipline among the monks, but the saint, being a strict observer of fasting and prayer, by his own example soon influenced the brothers, at the same time treating them with love and mercy. So great were the labors of St. Joasaph that he soon became known to Empress Elizabeth I, who summoned him to court and listened to his homilies with great attention, later calling him to hierarchal service. In 1748 St. Joasaph was consecrated bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan. From that moment and until the end of his days, the saint was a good shepherd of his flock and knew each sheep by name. He constantly traveled through the diocese which had been entrusted to him, and everywhere he put things in order. He was concerned with the condition of churches, with the icons, with the following church rules; he corrected various shortcomings among the clergy, especially pride, haughtiness and avarice. The Lord was well-pleased with such ardent zeal on the part of the saint for putting the house of God in order. The following event was a visible manifestation of God’s favor: In 1754 St. Joasaph made one of his frequent journeys through his bishopric. In the city of Izyum he paid great attention to the main church. Upon entering the church, he immediately looked with amazement at a large icon of the Mother of God standing in the corner of the narthex, behind which the altar boys shook out charcoal from the censer. Getting down on his knees before the icon, the saint exclaimed: “O Heavenly Queen, forgive the negligence of Thy unworthy servitors!” Then, turning to the eldest priest, he said: “Why is this icon not put in a better place? God’s special grace rests upon this icon. It is a sign of the Holy Virgin’s particular intercession for us here and for our entire country.” Then St. Joasaph ordered the icon to be placed in the left-hand choir, and came daily to pray before it. There was a very special reason for such an order. When St. Joasaph was on the point of departing from Belgorod, he saw in his dreams a certain church and in it, on a pile of rubbish, an icon of the Mother of God. The icon shone with a radiant light and a voice said: “Look at what this church has done with My image! My icon is intended to be a source of grace for the entire land, while they have thrown it on a pile of rubbish.” Astounded by such a dream, St. Joasaph examined each church in the course of his travels, checking whether it matched the one seen in the dream. When he entered the above-mentioned church and saw the icon which he had seen in his dream, he ordered everything to be done as described above. The Theotokos did not delay in showing Her favor: the icon, called the Peschan Mother of God, soon began to produce many miracles and attract many pilgrims from all over Russia. St. Joasaph’s administration of the Belgorod diocese was quite brief. In 1753 he became ill of consumption [tuberculosis], from which he died on December 10, 1754. The relics of St. Joasaph were found incorrupt and produced many miracles. St. Joasaph was canonized on September 4, 1911, during the reign and with the active cooperation of the Tsar-Martyr Niholas II. Every day, at 3:00 in the afternoon, the hour in which Christ died on the cross, St. Joasaph said the following prayer to the Saviour: Blessed is the day and hour in which my Lord Jesus Christ was born, suffered on the cross, and died for my sake. O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, in the hour of my death welcome the spirit of Thy servant, an earthly wanderer, by the prayers of Thy Most-holy Mother and all Thy saints, for Thou art blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:53:05 +0000
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