SYNAXIS OF SAINTS OF THE SOLOVETSKY MONASTERY

The Solovetsky Monastery, with its more than five-hundred-year history, is a true City of God, with a unique history of holiness on earth.

The Synaxis of Saints of the Solovetsky Monastery includes more than fifty saints venerated by the Church and canonized as ascetics and hierarchs. From the founders, Zosimas, Sabbatius, and Herman in the 15th century, to Saint Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow and martyr in the 16th century, and subsequent generations. The celebration takes place on August 22.

The Solovetsky Monastery is a place of special sanctity, the Holy Mountain, as it was called in ancient Byzantium, whose history unfolds in several phases. From the emergence of the first Desert Fathers to the tragic end of the Bolshevik era, through its heyday under Saint Philip and its subsequent existence, it was closed by the atheist Soviet atheist power when the monastery was transformed into a camp.

The celebration in honor of the new Solovetsky martyrs and confessors is liturgically celebrated separately, but of course, the old and new Solovetsky saints stand together before God in heavenly intercession and communion of saints.

The lives and teachings of many Solovetsky saints are described in the Solovetsky Patericon. I confess that over 30 years ago, this was one of the first spiritual books I had the privilege of reading before entering the Moscow Theological Seminary.