Venerable Gregory of Pelshma

Saint Gregory of Pelshma was born in the mid-14th century in Galich into the boyar family of Lopotov. Weary of worldly life from his youth, he secretly left home and was tonsured at the Theotokos Monastery beyond Lake Galich, founded by St. Abraham of Galich. He later moved to Rostov, labored at the Abraham Monastery, and was chosen abbot of the Savior Monastery "on the Sands." Avoiding honors, he withdrew secretly into the Vologda forests and settled on the Pelshma River, founding around the 1420s a communal monastery with a church of the Synaxis of the Theotokos (the Lopotov-Grigoriev Monastery). He became known for his strict asceticism and intercession for those suffering in princely feuds: tradition holds that during Prince Dmitri Shemyaka's siege of Vologda he stood up for the townspeople and was thrown from a bridge, surviving unharmed. He reposed on September 30 (historians differ between 1441 and 1442). He was glorified at the Council of 1549 and is also commemorated in the Synaxes of the Vologda and Kostroma saints.