Venerable Dalmatus of Iset (Dalmatovo)

Venerable Dalmatus, born Dmitry Ivanovich Mokrinsky, was born in 1594 in the fortress town of Beryozov. He lived in Tobolsk, served in the tsar's service, was married, and had children. After his wife's death, he left worldly life, took monastic vows under the name Dalmatus at the Nevyansk Theophany Monastery, and then withdrew as a hermit to the deserted bank of the Iset River, where he dug a cave and spent several years in solitude, enduring raids by nomads and the hardships of the harsh climate. A brotherhood gradually gathered around the ascetic, and on the site of his labors arose the Dalmatovo Dormition Monastery, which became one of the spiritual and defensive centers of the Trans-Ural region. Venerable Dalmatus died on June 25, 1697, in advanced old age. The settlement that arose beside the monastery received the status of the district town of Dalmatovo in 1781, in honor of its founder. With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, in 2004 Venerable Dalmatus of Iset was numbered among the locally venerated saints of the Kurgan diocese in the Synaxis of Siberian Saints. His memory is kept on June 25/July 8.