Venerable
Venerable Vassian of Pertominsk
† 1561 (по др. сведениям — 1566)
Also known as: Вассиан Пертоминский, Соловецкий, Вассиан Соловецкий
A Solovetsky monk and disciple of St Philip who drowned with St Jonah in the White Sea; the Pertominsk Monastery grew up over their grave on the Una Bay.
Venerable Vassian of Pertominsk was a monk of the Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery and a disciple of St Philip (Kolychev), later Metropolitan of Moscow. He is venerated together with his fellow monk Venerable Jonah.
While carrying lime from the mouth of the Dvina on a monastery errand, Vassian and Jonah, with five lay workers, were caught in a storm and drowned; the waves cast their bodies ashore in the Una Bay of the White Sea. The Tale of their finding dates their death to 1566, the Solovetsky chronicle (followed by the Church calendar) to 1561.
In June 1599 the saints appeared in a dream to Elder Mamant of the Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra, who, at their request, served a memorial service and built a chapel over their grave. From 1617 a brotherhood gathered there, forming the Pertominsk Monastery of the Transfiguration. The Pomor fishermen venerated them as helpers at sea. In 1694 Tsar Peter I, saved from a storm nearby, had their relics examined by Archbishop Athanasius of Kholmogory. Feast: 12 (25) June; finding of relics 5 (18) June.