Honorific Prefix: | Saint |
Bogolep of Chorny Yar | |
Birth Date: | May 2, 1647 |
Death Date: | August 1, 1654 |
Feast Day: | July 24 and the second Sunday after Pentecost |
Venerated In: | Russian Orthodox Church (locally), Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church[1] |
Birth Place: | Moscow |
Death Place: | Chorny Yar |
Titles: | Venerable |
Canonized Date: | 1918 |
Canonized By: | Russian Orthodox Church |
Patronage: | Astrakhan Oblast, especially Chorny Yar; sick children[2] |
Bogolep of Chorny Yar (Russian: Боголеп Черноярский; secular name Boris Yakovlevich Ushakov, Russian: Бори́с Яковлевич Ушаков; May 2, 1647 - August 1, 1654) was a Russian Orthodox child schema-monk, a local saint of the Russian Orthodox Church (venerable).
He was born in Moscow into an old and influential Russian house of Ushakovs (accordingly, he was a distant relative of two later saints: hieromonk Theodore of Sanaksar and Admiral Fyodor Ushakov). His father was a boyar named Yakov Lukich Ushakov. His mother named and Yekaterina Vasilyeva Ushakova. In baptism, he was named Boris in honor of the Prince Boris Vladimirovich. His father was appointed voyevoda to Chorny Yar (now Astrakhan Oblast, Russia) in 1651. The life tells that the child was very pious from an early age: as a baby he observed fasts on Wednesday and Friday, cried at the sound of the bell, thereby indicating that he should be carried to church.
Boris was in very poor health: at the age of 7, he developed an ulcer on his leg, which soon passed, but a new disease called "chechui" (ulcers on the face) began. One day he saw a wandering monk and was amazed by his vestments. Boris asked his parents to give him a haircut, saying that after that he would recover. The parents agreed and Boris was tonsured into a schema with the name Bogolep (Russian translation of the Greek name Theoprepius). According to the life, the next day after taking the veil, he recovered, but a day later he fell ill with fever and died the same day. In various versions of the life, the year of Bogolep's death differs: 1654 or 1659 (the first date is considered more appropriate to the hagiographic history). Bogolep was buried next to the church in honor of the Resurrection of the Lord, later a chapel was built over his grave.