Righteous 16th century

Righteous Artemius of Verkola

1532–1545

Also known as Artemy of Verkola

A pious peasant boy of Verkola on the Dvina who at twelve years was struck dead by a thunderclap; left in the forest, his body was found years later incorrupt and became a source of healing.

Feast Day

June 23

Also Oct 20

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Commemorated as

The Holy and Righteous Child Artemius of Verkola, the Wonderworker

Life

Artemius of Verkola was a peasant boy of the Russian North who, according to tradition, died at about twelve years of age when he was struck by lightning while working in the fields during a thunderstorm. He is venerated in the Orthodox Church as a righteous child and wonderworker, his feast kept on June 23, the day associated with his repose, and again on October 20.

Born in 1532 in the village of Verkola, in what is now the Pinezhsky District of Arkhangelsk Oblast, he was the son of a peasant named Kosma and his wife Apollinaria. Because of a local belief that those killed in thunderstorms had died under divine judgment, his body was left unburied in the forest; its later discovery, reportedly incorrupt and accompanied by a light, reversed that judgment and gave rise to his veneration.

Timeline 4 moments Read Hide

1532 Birth in Verkola Artemius was born in the village of Verkola in the Grand Duchy of Moscow, in the Russian North, to the peasant Kosma and his wife Apollinaria.
1545 Death by lightning On June 23, while helping his father work a field, the boy was killed when a sudden thunderstorm broke. Owing to a contemporary belief that a death by lightning signified God's judgment, the villagers did not give him a funeral or burial, leaving the body in the forest covered only with brushwood and birch bark.
1577 Discovery of the body By tradition, decades after his death a light was seen over the place where the body lay, and it was found showing no sign of decay. The relics were moved to the local Church of St. Nicholas, where healings were reported among those who venerated them.
1648 Monastery founded The St. Artemius of Verkola Monastery was founded by order of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, and the saint's relics were translated there.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributions Read Hide

Relics & Shrines

Following the discovery of the body, the relics were placed in the Church of St. Nicholas in Verkola, which became the focus of his veneration. After the founding of the St. Artemius of Verkola Monastery in 1648 by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, the relics were transferred to the monastery.

Accounts of the relics' later history vary in detail: sources record that they were desecrated or hidden during the Soviet period after the monastery's closure in the early twentieth century. Monastic and church life at the site is reported to have resumed in 1990.

Veneration

Artemius is commemorated as a righteous child and wonderworker, and his cult was established in the Russian North, with his Life completed in the early seventeenth century. By tradition he is invoked particularly by the seriously ill, by those suffering eye diseases, and on behalf of sick children.

Notes

Also commemorated Oct 20.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints