Hierarch Saint Mitrophan, Bishop of Voronezh

Saint Mitrophan (secular name Mikhail) was born on 6 November 1623. Before entering monastic life he had been married and had a son, taking the tonsure after his wife's death. He served as abbot, then archimandrite, of the Unzha Trinity and Makariev-Zheltovodsky monasteries. In 1682 he was consecrated bishop by Patriarch Joachim, becoming the first hierarch of the newly established Diocese of Voronezh.

He actively supported Peter the Great's shipbuilding program in Voronezh for the Azov campaigns, personally donating funds to the fleet; he famously refused to enter the tsar's residence while pagan statues stood in its courtyard, prompting Peter to have them removed out of respect.

Shortly before his death he took the great schema under the name Macarius. He reposed on 23 November 1703; Peter, who was in Voronezh that day, personally helped carry his coffin. In 1832, under Emperor Nicholas I, Mitrophan was glorified as a saint; his relics were uncovered on 7 August of that year.