Venerable Job of Ushchelsk

Saint Job the Gorge-dweller was a monk of the Solovki Monastery (his father's name was Patrick Mazovsky). On November 10, 1608 Venerable Job was ordained as a Hieromonk by Metropolitan Isidore of Novgorod. In 1614 Saint Job was sent to the Mezen region, where at the confluence of the Rivers Ezeg and Vazhka into the River Mezen, he built a chapel in honor of the Nativity of Christ. The Monastery was so poor that the first monks to gather around him lived in the homes of their lay kinsmen. After Tsar Michael (1613-1645) donated lands to the Monastery with fishing rights, Saint Job built a church and monastic cells for the brethren.

On August 5, 1628, when all the brethren were in the hayfield, the Monastery was attacked by robbers. After torturing Saint Job in order to force him to open the monastic treasury, the robbers beheaded him. Finding nothing, they went away. When the brethren returned they buried the Martyr's body with honor.

Local veneration of the Venerable one as a Saint began soon after his death, because of numerous miracles (about fifty occurred in the XVII century). The first icon was painted in 1658, and his Life written in the 1660s. Around that time a chapel was built over the relics of the Venerable one. Later, with the blessing of Archbishop Athanasios of Kholmogorsk, it was rebuilt as a church in honor of his patron Saint, the Righteous Job the Much-Suffering (May 6). On the same day the Church established the commemoration of Saint Job the Gorge-dweller.

On November 3, 1739, the relics of Saint Job were examined by Archbishop Barsanuphios, and it was blessed to chant a Moleben to the Saint. Thus his glorification took place. In iconography, Saint Job is depicted in this manner: “Greyish, with a beard like Saint Alexander of Svir, dressed as Schema-monk, and in his hands is a scroll upon which is written: “Fear not those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28).