Reviewed entry
Venerable (Monastic)16th century

Venerable John and Longinus Wonderworkers of Yarenga

16th century

Also known as John of Yarenga · Longinus of Yarenga

Two monks of Solovki who perished together in a storm on the White Sea, and whose relics were carried to Yarenga, where many wonders were worked.

July 3New Calendar
Feast Day
July 16Old Calendar
Also commemorated
  • October 16NewOctober 29Old

Life

John and Longinus of Yarenga were sixteenth-century monks of the Solovetsky monastery in the White Sea of northern Russia, commemorated together as wonderworkers of Yarenga. Surviving sources preserve little of their biography: Orthodox calendars place them among the monastic brethren of Solovki, and modern reference works give the dates of their lives only tentatively, as either the mid-1540s or 1569.

By tradition the two monks perished together in a storm on the White Sea, and their relics were afterward carried to Yarenga, where they came to be venerated as wonderworkers. They are commemorated on July 3 and again on October 16 (October 29 on the Old Calendar).

Contributions & Legacy

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Sources and Commemoration

The Orthodox Church in America synaxarion lists both saints under the title 'Wonderworker of Yarenga, Solovki' but records no extended life for either: the July 3 entry for John reads only that no information is available, and the entry for Longinus simply cross-references his October 16 commemoration. Their veneration is thus attested chiefly through liturgical commemoration rather than a developed hagiography.

Reference sources identify the pair as monks of the Solovetsky monastery and assign them to the sixteenth century, with the precise years of their lives left uncertain. The narrative of their death in a storm on the White Sea and the translation of their relics to Yarenga is preserved in the tradition surrounding them.

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Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints