Saint Gregory of Avnezh

Gregory of Avnega (died 1392) was a venerable martyr of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the second half of the 14th century, the hermits Stephen, a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and Gregory began living on the Avnega Heights. Around 1370, they built a church and cells for monks. They were greatly assisted in their endeavors by a wealthy local villager named Konstantin Dmitrievich, who later took monastic vows under the name Kassian and was appointed cellarer of the new monastery when Grand Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy summoned Stephen to Moscow. At the end of the 14th century, the monastery suffered greatly from raids by the Kazan Tatars and the Vyatka people. During one such raid on June 15, 1392, both ascetics were killed, and following their martyrdom, the monastery fell into complete desolation. The abandonment of the Avnega Monastery lasted 132 years, and the site where it had stood became almost entirely overgrown with forest. In 1524, an Avnega villager clearing the forest discovered their relics, and an Orthodox chapel was erected over them. In 1560, Varlaam, the abbot of the Trinity Monastery, used a donation from the Russian Tsar to build a monastery at the tomb of the saints, which was converted into a parish church in 1764. With the blessing of Metropolitan Macarius, their relics were examined by Bishop Ioasaf of Vologda, and it was established that the feast of the Avnega wonderworkers should be celebrated locally on the day of their death. Their memory is also commemorated on the third Sunday after Pentecost, as part of the Synaxis of Vologda Saints, and on July 6, as part of the Synaxis of Radonezh Saints.