Saint Mitrophan or Mitrofan of Voronezh (1623 - 1703) was appointed in 1682 the first bishop of Voronezh. He is reputed to have possessed miracle-working powers. [1]
A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight.
Voronezh, also romanized as Voronež, is a city and the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast, Russia, straddling the Voronezh River and located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from where it flows into the Don. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects European Russia with the Urals and Siberia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the M4 highway (Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov-on-Don–Novorossiysk). Its population in 2016 was estimated to be 1,032,895; up from 889,680 recorded in the 2010 Census; it is the fourteenth most populous city in the country.
Thaumaturgy is the capability of a magician or a saint to work magic or miracles. Isaac Bonewits defined thaumaturgy as "the use of magic for non-religious purposes; the art and science of 'wonder-working;' using magic to actually change things in the physical world". It is sometimes translated into English as wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a "thaumaturgus", "thaumaturge", "thaumaturgist" or "miracle worker".
Mikhail (as he was then known) was born in the village of Antilokhovo, Savinsky District and took monastic vows after his wife's death in 1663. He managed the Kosmin Monastery near Yuryev-Polsky and the Unzha Monastery in Makaryev before being promoted to a bishop's see in 1682. He supported Peter the Great in his efforts to build the first Russian warships in Voronezh but was generally critical of his Westernization policies.
Savinsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the twenty-one in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. It is located in the south of the oblast. The area of the district is 861 square kilometers (332 sq mi). Its administrative center is the urban locality of Savino. Population: 12,079 (2010 Census); 14,471 ; 17,654 (1989 Census). The population of Savino accounts for 45.6% of the district's total population.
Yuryev-Polsky is an old town and the administrative center of Yuryev-Polsky District of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located in the upper reaches of the Koloksha River, 68 kilometers (42 mi) northwest of Vladimir, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 19,595 (2010 Census); 19,906 (2002 Census); 22,247 (1989 Census); 23,000 (1974).
Makaryev is a town and the administrative center of Makaryevsky District in Kostroma Oblast, Russia, located on the right bank of the Unzha River, 184 kilometers (114 mi) east of Kostroma, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 7,274 (2010 Census); 7,847 (2002 Census); 9,153 (1989 Census).
Bishop Mitrofan was buried in the Annunciation Monastery in the Tsar's presence in 1703. When 14 years later his tomb was opened, Mitrofan's body was found to be "whole" and his relics were proclaimed to have healing powers. After he was formally canonized in 1832 and Nicholas I paid a visit to his shrine, [2] his fame increased and large numbers of pilgrims from Central Russia started flocking to his tomb in Voronezh. [3] The first Moscow church in his name was consecrated in 1895.
The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh is one of the tallest Eastern Orthodox churches in the world.
Nicholas I reigned as Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He has become best known as a political conservative whose reign was marked by geographical expansion, repression of dissent, economic stagnation, poor administrative policies, a corrupt bureaucracy, and frequent wars that culminated in Russia's defeat in the Crimean War of 1853–56. Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; all of their seven children survived childhood. His biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish. A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, says Riasanovsky, "Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate." He was the younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and went on to become the most reactionary of all Russian leaders.
The Bolsheviks had Mitrofan's relics confiscated. It was in 1989 that the relics were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. There is an ornate statue of Saint Mitrofan in front of the Annunciation Cathedral where his relics have been kept since then.
The Bolsheviks, also known in English as the Bolshevists, were a faction founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov that split from the Menshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898, at its Second Party Congress in 1903.
In religion, a relic usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
