Artemy of Verkola
Encyclopedia
Artemy of Verkola is a child saint
venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church
.
According to his hagiography
, he was an unusually pious peasant child who lived in northern Russia. He was struck by lightning while helping his father plow the fields and was killed instantly. He was interred in a clearing and a wooden shell was placed around his body, with a fence constructed around it.
Thirty-three years after his death a local deacon
saw a light emanating from the boy's resting place and supposedly discovered the boy's body showed no sign of decay
. Miracles of healing happened to people who venerated the boy's relic
s and he was proclaimed a saint.
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
According to his hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, he was an unusually pious peasant child who lived in northern Russia. He was struck by lightning while helping his father plow the fields and was killed instantly. He was interred in a clearing and a wooden shell was placed around his body, with a fence constructed around it.
Thirty-three years after his death a local deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
saw a light emanating from the boy's resting place and supposedly discovered the boy's body showed no sign of decay
Incorruptibility
Incorruptibility is a Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox belief that supernatural intervention allows some human bodies to avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness...
. Miracles of healing happened to people who venerated the boy's relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...
s and he was proclaimed a saint.