page_title: Simeon of Verkhoturye
section_title: Sainthood
hierarchical_section_title: Simeon of Verkhoturye / Sainthood
caption_attribution_description: English: Relics of Simeon of Verkhoture in Verkhoturskii Monastery [Verkhoture] (photo taken 1910 by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii).
context_page_description: St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, also known as Simeon of Merkushino, is a Russian Orthodox righteous saint. He is the patron saint of the Ural region. The main feast day of St. Simeon is 18 December, or 31 December.
  Believers pray to God asking for St. Simeon for help, consolation, strengthening, correction, treatment of the soul and body, and delivering from evil. Needy people pray to the saint to escape from death. Often believers with eye diseases or palsy refer to St. Simeon for help.
context_section_description: On 12 September 1704, the relics of St. Simeon were translated to the Nikolayevsky Monastery of Verkhoturye with the blessings of metropolitan St. Philotheus, and brought to the right-sided kliros of the monastery church. According to a legend, the translation was related to a cross procession, after lame Fool Cosmas prayed and wished to take rest. In 1716, the church was burnt down, but the shrine with the relics was unaffected and in 1838 was placed to the side-altar of Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess, which was renamed in honour of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye in 1863. The burial place of St. Simeon in Merkushino, where a spring gushed, was also honoured. The wooden chapel above it was replaced by a new stone chapel in 1808.
  The Brotherhood of the Righteous St. Simeon, Wonderworker of Verkhoturye, was founded in Ekaterinburg in 1886 for the enlightenment of people. Members of the brotherhood on the money of the Eparchy, the Synod and volunteers opened schools and supported missionaries. 300 schools, where over 10 thousand pupils learned grammar and God's Law, were maintained by the brotherhood. A missionary foundation was created in 1901 for the support of the disadvantaged and people returning from a schism or a sect.
  The relics of St. Simeon draw many pilgrims to the monastery; in the early 20th century the number of visitors reached 60,000 people in a year. Incidentally, the Exaltation Cathedral was built in the Nikolayevsky Monastery in 1913 to hold eight to ten thousand people. The dedication and the translation of the relics of St. Simeon took place on 11 September 1913, when the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated. That day, a telegram from the Tsar's family arrived from Livadiya: "Verkhoturye. Nikolayevsky Monastery. To the abbot Father Xenophon. I wholeheartedly greet you and the community with this solemn day of dedication of the new church, the cherished monastery and tomorrow's great feast. I seek for your prayers in front of the righteous' shrine. Nicholas. Anastasia". In 1914, the Tsar family donated a silver baldachin for the shrine. It was solemnly moved from Ekaterinburg to Verkhoturye during a cross procession that lasted 20 days. Several thousand pilgrims walked over 350 kilometres (220 mi). On 27 May, the relics of St. Simeon were translated from the Nikolayevsky church to the Exaltation Cathedral of the Nikolayevsky Monastery.
caption: Shrine with relics of Simeon of Verkhoturye at the Nikolayevsky Monastery, 1910
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