Saint Joasaph of Belgorod: from canonization to discovery. Part 1. First steps to glorification (1791–1819)translated

With the blessing of Metropolitan John of Belgorod and Stary Oskol This year the Belgorod Metropolis celebrates two significant dates: the 115th anniversary of the glorification of St. Joasaph of Belgorod as a saint and the 35th anniversary of the second discovery of his holy relics. Saint Joasaph, who died in 1754 and had already acquired the gift of miracles during his lifetime, was canonized after a century and a half of popular veneration. The celebrations of 1911 became one of the greatest church events of pre-revolutionary Russia. During the years of atheistic persecution, the relics of the saint were desecrated, taken to Moscow and lost. However, in 1991, at the beginning of the revival of the Church, they were miraculously found in the attic of the Kazan Cathedral in Leningrad and triumphantly returned to Belgorod. These two dates - 1911 and 1991 - are separated by the tragic age of Russian history, but they are connected by a continuous thread of people's memory and faith in the heavenly patron of the Belgorod land, whose incorruptible relics now reside in the Transfiguration Cathedral.

Together with you we will learn all the details of those events thanks to which Holy Belogorye acquired the relics of its Heavenly patron. Towards the end of the 18th century, a pilgrimage to Belgorod to the tomb of St. Joasaph...