Venerable
Venerable Martyrius of Zelenets
XVI в. — 1603
Also known as: Мартирий Великолукский
Venerable Martyrius of Zelenets, in the world Mina — founder of the Trinity-Zelenetsky Monastery in the Novgorod land, who reposed peacefully in 1603.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the image is directly inscribed "VENERABLE MARTYRIUS OF ZELENETS" — the saint was a monastery founder who died peacefully and did not suffer martyrdom. The category has been corrected from "martyr" to "venerable."
Venerable Martyrius, in the world Mina, was born in the city of Velikiye Luki. Orphaned early (his parents Kosma and Stefanida died before he was ten), he was raised by his godfather Bogolep, a priest of the town's Annunciation church. When the widowed Bogolep took monastic vows, later becoming abbot of the Trinity-Sergius monastery in Velikiye Luki, Mina followed him, gave away his possessions to the poor, and was tonsured under the name Martyrius (c. 1553). For many years he served the monastery in the obediences of cellarer, treasurer, and candle-lighter, before being ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Novgorod around 1570.
Seeking a more solitary ascetic life, Martyrius traveled toward the Tikhvin Dormition Monastery, where, guided by his own former disciple, the monk Avraamy, he learned of a remote, swampy wilderness known as "Zeleny" (Green) Island in the Novgorod (Obonezh) region near Lake Ladoga — so named for its green appearance amid the surrounding dark bogs. Settling there, he founded a hermitage that grew into the Trinity-Zelenetsky Monastery, becoming its first abbot; by 1583 the community numbered 12 monks.
The monastery's renown grew after 1595, when the dying son of the former Tsar Simeon Bekbulatovich was healed through Martyrius's prayer before the Tikhvin icon; that same year Tsar Feodor Ioannovich issued a charter confirming the monastery's lands and fishing grounds on Lake Ladoga. The venerable one reposed peacefully on March 1, 1603, buried in a grave he had dug himself beside the wooden church of the Theotokos; his relics were later placed beneath the monastery's Trinity Cathedral. He was glorified among the saints in the 18th century, under Empress Elizabeth.
His feast is kept on March 1/14 (repose) and November 11/24 (translation of relics).