Adrian of Poshekhonye

Who was Adrian of Poshekhonye?

Venerable Adrian of Poshekhonye was a Russian Orthodox monk and iconographer, who was the founder and first igumen of the Dormition monastery in Poshekhonye, north Yaroslavl region. He is commemorated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Adrian was born at Rostov the Great near the end of the sixteenth century, of pious parents named Gregory and Irene. He received monastic tonsure at the monastery of the Venerable Cornelius of Komel. There he was ordained a hierodeacon. Three years after the death of his spiritual father, St. Cornelius, he received a blessing to go and found a new monastery, dedicated to the Theotokos. The monastery was built on the river Votkha in Poshekhon. Saint Macarius the Metropolitan of Moscow blessed the foundation and gave them a charter to that effect. He ordained Adrian a hieromonk and elevated him to the rank of igumen.

During Great Lent of 1550, in the evening on March 5, armed robbers burst into the monastery and murdered Adrian after torturing him mercilessly. He was buried by his brethren in the monastery's Temple of the prophet Elijah.