Venerable Anthony the Roman of Novgorod

Life

According to his life, Anthony was born in Rome in 1067 to wealthy Orthodox Christian parents who raised him in piety. Sources variously describe the family as Orthodox and as Greek Orthodox. After losing his parents at the age of seventeen, he studied the writings of the Church Fathers in Greek, gave part of his inheritance to the poor, and placed the remainder in a sealed wooden barrel which he cast into the sea before receiving monastic tonsure.

The synaxarion relates that Anthony spent twenty years at a wilderness monastery. When persecution of Orthodox Christians by Latin forces compelled the community to disperse, he withdrew to live for a year upon a large rock by the seashore, devoting himself to fasting and prayer.

By tradition, on September 5, 1105 a violent storm tore away the stone on which Anthony stood and cast it into the sea. Through divine providence, the account holds, the stone floated across the sea to the region of Novgorod, arriving on the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos (September 8) near the village of Volkhov on the banks of the River Volkhov, three versts from Novgorod. This event is noted in the Novgorod Chronicles.

Founding of the Monastery

Anthony did not speak Russian, and a Greek merchant informed him that he had come to Novgorod. With the blessing of the bishop of Novgorod — named in the sources as Saint Niketas the Hermit (Nikita) — Anthony received permission to found a monastery at the site where his stone had arrived. According to the account, the wooden barrel containing his inheritance was later recovered and its contents used to purchase land for the monastery.

A stone church was built between 1117 and 1119 by an architect named Peter and decorated with frescoes in 1125. The monastery was dedicated to the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos and became known as the Antoniev Monastery. In 1131 Anthony was appointed igumen (abbot); the sources note that this appointment came only after Niphon (Niphont) was installed as bishop of Novgorod, and historians observe that the long interval before his appointment is not fully explained.

Repose and Veneration

Anthony died on August 3, 1147, and was buried by Saint Niphon in his monastery. He was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1597.

His historical significance in Russian Orthodox memory is reflected in the fact that the name of Antony Khrapovitsky was given in his honor. His feast days are kept on January 17 and August 3.

Sources and Tradition

The hagiographic account describing Anthony's voyage upon the stone is known only from the second half of the 16th century, and historians distinguish between the saint's documented life at Novgorod and the legendary narrative of his arrival. The anchor synaxarion presents the crossing upon the stone as the saint's defining tradition, while noting the corroborating mention in the Novgorod Chronicles.