Venerable
Venerable Onuphrius of Malsk
XV в., † 1492
Also known as: Онуфрий Мальский, Псковский, Онуфрий Изборский, Onuphry of Malsk
A fifteenth-century hermit of the Pskov land, by tradition a disciple of St Euphrosynus of Pskov, who founded the Malsk Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos near Izborsk; died in 1492.
Venerable Onuphrius of Malsk (of Izborsk) was a fifteenth-century ascetic of the Pskov land, by tradition a disciple of St Euphrosynus of Pskov. Seeking solitude, he settled on Sennoy Island in Lake Malskoye, four versts from Izborsk and 56 versts from Pskov. Those seeking the monastic life gathered around him, and his hermitage grew into the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God at Malsk.
He died on 12 June 1492 (some editions give 1592) and was buried in the Nativity church of the monastery, in a chapel dedicated to him. He is also commemorated on "Malsk Sunday", the first Sunday after the Apostles' Fast: according to tradition, heavy snow once fell on that day and threatened the crops, but through his prayers it quickly melted without harm and the harvest was greater than before.
The monastery was destroyed by the army of Stephen Báthory in 1581 and by the Swedes in 1710 and restored in 1730; since 2000 it has been the Skete of St Onuphrius of the Pskov Caves Monastery. Feast: 12 (25) June; also Malsk Sunday and the Synaxis of the Saints of Pskov.