1705 – 1754
A beloved bishop of Belgorod (d. 1754), known for almsgiving and strictness of life; his relics were uncovered on this day in 1911
Our Father among the Saints Ioasaph, Bishop of Belgorod and Wonderworker
Ioasaph of Belgorod (secular name Ioakim Andreyevich Gorlenko; 1705–1754) was an eighteenth-century Russian Orthodox bishop renowned for his ascetic life, pastoral zeal, and generous almsgiving. Born into the Cossack nobility of the Hetmanate, he received his formation at the Kiev Theological Academy before embracing monastic life, eventually rising to serve as Bishop of Belgorod and Oboyan from 1748 until his death in 1754.
He died at the age of forty-nine, but his body was found incorrupt. Veneration of him grew steadily, and he was formally glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church on 4 September 1911 — a canonisation attended by more than 200,000 faithful. His relics, seized during the Soviet period and held for decades in a Leningrad museum, were returned to Belgorod in 1991. He is commemorated on 4 September (glorification) and 10 December (repose).
As Bishop of Belgorod, Ioasaph was known for combining pastoral strictness with personal humility and charity. He was especially attentive to the welfare of the poor, giving alms widely, and he held his clergy to high standards of life and conduct. His diocese, which covered a broad swath of southern Russia, benefited from his energetic oversight during the six years of his episcopate.
Following his repose in 1754, Ioasaph's body was preserved incorrupt — a sign taken as evidence of holiness. Healings attributed to his intercession fuelled growing local and then wider veneration. The formal glorification in 1911 was one of the major canonisation events of the pre-Revolutionary Russian Church.
After the Bolshevik seizure of power his relics were removed from the cathedral and eventually placed in storage in a Leningrad museum. Their rediscovery in the late Soviet era and solemn return to Belgorod in 1991 marked a significant moment in the post-Soviet renewal of Orthodox life in Russia. The saint is venerated throughout the Orthodox world; churches dedicated to him exist in Illinois and in Shanghai.
His repose is commemorated on Dec 10