20 October/ 2 November

Artemy was born in 1532 to the pious Kosma and Apollinaria, in the village of Verkola (on the banks of the Pinega River, Dvinsk District). He was brought up in God-fearing, Christian piety. By the time he was five years of age, he had begun to distance himself from childish habits: he did not enjoy playing games, was quiet, meek, God-fearing, and was obedient to his parents, assiduously helping his father at the farm as much as he could at his age. Once, at the age of 13, Artemy accompanied his father into the fields. Without warning, there was a clap of thunder and a lightning bolt struck; despite the fact that the lightning had not touched him, the boy fell dead. Interpreting this as a manifestation of God’s wrath, the peasants left the boy’s body in a pine forest, unburied.

This took place on June 23, 1545. Twenty-eight years after the righteous Artemy’s death, after everyone had forgotten about the boy, an unusual light appearing over the forest led people to discover his incorrupt body. The peasants brought St. Artemy’s body to the courtyard before the Church of St. Nicholas. God glorified the righteous one’s relics through miracles, and in 1639, Metropolitan Cyprian of Novgorod the Great issued a directive that “the local and area abbots, priests and deacons document [those miracles].” An account of the healings was prepared and presented to the Metropolitan. The following year, the Metropolitan issued a “full festal service to celebrate the Righteous Artemy: sticherae, magnification, a litya, aposticha, troparion, kontakion, and ikos, hymn of light, and praises, and banner chant sheet music.”

Through the prayers of the Saint, many sick people received healing, especially those who suffered from ocular disorders. A certain Hilarion, a resident of Kholmogor, had lost his sight and become despondent. On the Feast Day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Righteous Artemy, holding a staff in his left hand and a Cross in his right, appeared to the suffering man. Making the sign of the Cross over him with the Cross, he said, “Arise, Christ heals you by the hand of His servant Artemy. Go to Verkola, bow down before his coffin, and relate everything to the priest and to the peasants.” The sick man was immediately healed.

In 1584, thankful people who revered the venerable youth transferred his relics from the church courtyard to a side-chapel which had been especially prepared for them. In thanks for the healing of his son, Afanassy М. Pashkov, military commander of Monzensk, erected a church to Holy Great Martyr Artemy, heavenly patron of the righteous youth. On December 6, 1619 St. Artemy’s holy relics were uncovered, and transferred to that church. Thirty years later, after that church burned down, the relics were again found. In 1649, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovitch, a monastery was erected on the site, and the Saint’s relics were transferred to it. According to tradition, St. Artemy had a sister — the Righteous Paraskeva of Pirimin — who also gained renown as a worker of miracles.