“Let us sing hymns of praise to the star of Pochaev, shining brightly in the heavenly firmament among the host of Russian saints, to the wondrous ascetic, the marvellous Amphilochius.”
(Sticheron at Lord, I Have Cried, Tone 1)
Saint Amphilochius is known, loved, and revered not only within the Pochaev Lavra but far beyond its walls. His ascetic life, steadfast faith during the challenging Khrushchev era, and boundless love, mercy, and compassion for all earned him his renown. With courage, he waged spiritual warfare against the enemy of mankind. He endured countless temptations and sorrows, taking upon himself the burdens of human suffering to offer aid, encouragement, comfort, and hope to each soul in need. More than once, he suffered for Christ: KGB agents attempted to execute him, psychiatrists sought to shatter his mind and break his will, and even his nephew plotted against his life. Yet, the almighty Lord shielded His servant from every peril. His life of sacrifice was not so long ago, and even today, one can encounter those who still recall his voice, his gait, his gaze, and his remarkable simplicity and closeness to the people.
The house where Saint Amphilochius of Pochaev was born and raised is in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, Shumsk Raion, Ternopol Oblast.
This future ascetic and miracle worker of Pochaev entered the world in 1894 in the town of Mala Ilovitsa (now Shumsk Raion, Ternopol Oblast) into a large and devout peasant family. At his baptism, he received the name Jacob, in honour of the Great Martyr Jacob the Persian (4th century). His father, Barnabas, was a renowned bone-setter in the region and often enlisted young Jacob’s help, passing on his healing skills to his son.
In 1912, Jacob Holovatyuk joined the Tsar’s army as a conscript and went to serve as a medical assistant in Siberia. During the First World War, he looked death in the face on the front lines until he was captured in battle. The Germans sent Jacob to the Alps, where he toiled on a farm for three years. His diligence and Christian meekness softened the farmer’s heart towards the Russian prisoner. The farmer even considered giving Jacob his daughter’s hand in marriage, but Jacob’s heart yearned for his homeland. In 1919, he escaped captivity and returned to Mala Ilovitsa with the aid of kind souls.
The brethren of Pochaev Lavra in the 1950s — 1960s. Second row, first from the left — Abbot Joseph (Saint Amphilochius)
After years of hardship and trials, a spiritual father guided the young man in choosing his life’s path. After a few years at home, Jacob Holovatyuk entered Pochaev Lavra as a novice in 1925. The newly initiated monk fulfilled his assigned obediences with diligence and humility. He crafted sledges and wheels and engaged in other labours familiar to his peasant soul. He sang in the choir, all the while considering himself the most sinful and unworthy. Having passed his monastic trials, novice Jacob Holovatyuk was tonsured a monk, receiving the name Joseph on 8 July 1932, by the blessing of His Beatitude Dionysius, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland.
Father Joseph, a devoted monk, completed the full course at the Monastic-Theological School within the Pochaev Lavra. In 1933, he became a hierodeacon, and three years later, a hieromonk. He served as assistant to the steward, fulfilled the role of spiritual father, and carried out various other monastic obediences.
Saint Amphilochius in his cell at the Pochaev Lavra
However, it was the care of the sick that consumed much of Father Joseph’s time. He quickly gained renown, like his father, as a bone-setter and a constant stream of sufferers sought his help day and night. “You are a good monk,” the abbot remarked, “but because of you, the brethren have no peace.” In 1932, the abbot settled Father Joseph and his cell attendant, Father Irinarch, in a small house by the gate of the monastery cemetery. Here, in 1971, he would eventually be laid to rest.
The elder resided in this humble abode for nearly twenty years. Spending his days and nights in labour and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, “going from strength to strength” (Psalm 84:7). Hidden from the world were his many secret ascetic struggles and spiritual battles. Through fasting and vigils, he subdued his flesh, mortified earthly desires and passions, and brought every thought and emotion under the guidance of the Spirit. Having dedicated his life to serving God and his neighbours, Father Joseph acquired steadfast faith and active love, receiving special grace from God. He possessed undeniable clairvoyance, the gift of healing through prayer, and the power to deliver the possessed. His battle with the unseen world was fierce: those scorched by his prayers sought revenge and relentlessly pursued him.
While his days were filled with obediences and tending to the needs of others, the elder dedicated his nights to prayer. Humble in spirit, Father Joseph shunned worldly acclaim and diligently concealed his spiritual gifts, sometimes resorting to holy foolishness. Yet many, even those without faith, underwent profound transformations after encountering him, becoming devoted disciples.
During the war, women would approach Father Joseph, seeking the seer’s wisdom about whether their husbands would return from the front. Sometimes, he would offer a blessing, assuring them, “He will return.” Other times, he would gently say, “Do not weep; he will not return.” And so it would be.
St. Nicholas church in the brethren’s cemetery of the Pochaev Lavra
Towards the end of the war, after the German retreat, one spring night, Bandera’s followers broke into the elder’s house with the intent to execute him. By God’s grace, Father Irinarch saved his holy friend from an untimely death. During the post-war Khrushchev persecutions, the Pochaev Lavra was caught in the authorities’ crosshairs. They plotted to transform the monastery into a museum of atheism and relentlessly harassed its inhabitants, hoping to drive them out. Failing this, they imposed strict surveillance on all believers, monks, and pilgrims. Repressions, exiles, and imprisonments followed. Yet these trials did not break the monks’ resolve. They endured with courage and composure, prepared, if necessary, to die for the sacred sanctuary of the Lavra. Within the monastery’s churches, lamps burned ceaselessly, and prayers ascended without interruption.
Saint Amphilochius by his cell icon “The Last Hope of All the Despairing”
In 1957, the authorities schemed to seize the Holy Trinity Cathedral from the Pochaev Lavra and convert it into a public bathhouse. Upon returning to the monastery from an obedience, Father Joseph discovered a tense scene unfolding at the cathedral. The abbot, along with the brethren and worshippers, had gathered as the police, holding the cathedral keys, were poised to seal the church. At that moment, repairs were underway on the bell tower, and a pile of logs and poles lay nearby. With swift resolve, the saint snatched the keys from the policeman, and thrust them into the abbot’s hands with the words, “Hold these and give them to no one!” Then, turning to the crowd, he cried, “The abbot, the bishop, governs the church, not the police! People, take up these poles and drive them out!” Within five minutes, they chased the police outside the Lavra grounds. Thus, through his boldness and courage, the future saint defended the cathedral. The authorities never attempted to seize the cathedral again, but the saint paid a heavy price for his defiance.
That very night, a “Black Maria” prison van arrived at the monastery. Armed men stormed into the elder’s cell, seized him, gagged him, dragged him down the stairs, and transported him 100 kilometres away to the Budanovo psychiatric hospital.
Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Pochaev Lavra, built in 1912 according to the design of A. Shchusev
There, they sheared his head and beard, tore off his cross, and at night, led him naked into a ward of violently insane patients. Every day, they injected him with a drug that caused his body to swell and his skin to crack. All who knew Father Joseph tirelessly petitioned for his release. Hopeful and persistent, they pleaded everywhere, even travelling to Moscow. Only through a miracle of God was the saint finally freed. He had endured immense suffering, yet his spirit remained unbroken.
After his release, the elder took refuge with his nephews in his native village. Soon, those in distress began seeking him out. Every day during the summer, the venerable elder received as many as five hundred people. He performed water-blessing services daily, read Akathists, and blessed all who came to him for counsel and healing to drink the holy water.
Through the elder’s prayers, people recovered. However, he maintained that only half of those who sought his help left healed. For various reasons and circumstances, the others continued to bear the cross of their illness. The courtyard of his small house, according to the elder, was “washed with the tears of people” — the gravely ill, yearning with all their hearts for healing. Sometimes, he would say, “Why do you come to me? Do you think I am a saint? I am a sinner! You receive healing through your prayers, through your faith.”
Water-Blessing Service
The saint often remarked that the root cause of so many sufferers flocking to him lay in the pervasive spirit of atheism, instilled from childhood in schools. Students were barred from attending church and subjected to ideological indoctrination that eroded their human dignity. Those who neglected church attendance, confession, and Communion were deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This, he believed, resulted in the widespread prevalence of spiritual illness. He often lamented that children in these times were born rebellious, proud, and insolent, and later became demon-possessed. Father Joseph advocated prayer as the remedy for this “malady of the modern age,” and in his home, prayers ascended ceaselessly. When dealing with such afflicted children, he would compel them to seek forgiveness from their parents. It required immense love within one’s heart to never refuse anyone anything, and the elder of God possessed such love. He found time for each soul in need. His unwavering rule was to be available at any time, day or night if someone with a broken bone required his assistance.
The saint’s prayer for the healing of the suffering
Every day, Father Joseph fed hundreds of people, providing free lunches and dinners. Many stayed with him in Ilovitsa for weeks, praying, finding solace, and regaining their composure in the solitude and beauty of nature. Despite official prohibitions and even the cancellation of the local bus route, people persevered, overcoming obstacles to seek his intercession and healing. The elder’s healing was primarily spiritual. If a person repented, acknowledged the sinfulness of their life, and desired transformation, then through the saint’s prayers, the Lord granted both spiritual and physical restoration.
Father Joseph had nineteen nephews and nieces. One day, a nephew who worked as a tractor driver lured him onto his tractor, drove him to the marshes beyond the village, pushed him off the vehicle, beat him unconscious, tossed him into the water, and left. The saint lay in the frigid water for eight hours; it was December. They found him barely alive, miraculously spared from drowning. The ascetic was rushed to the Pochaev Lavra and, that very night, tonsured into the Great Schema with the name Amphilochius, in honour of St. Amphilochius of Iconium, whose feast day the Church celebrated that day. No one expected him to survive the night. But the Lord restored Father Amphilochius to health — he recovered. Remaining at the Lavra without a residence permit was risky, so his relatives took him back to Ilovitsa.
Saint Amphilochius, the miracle worker of Pochaev
Saint Amphilochius possessed insight into the souls of others, their hearts and intentions. Yet, in his forbearance, he welcomed even the deceitful, the cunning, and the possessed into his home. Often, as he sat at the table, Father Amphilochius would sing, “I will not fear their fear, nor will I be dismayed” (Psalm 3:6). Frequently, the saint endured troubles from visitors tormented by demons. His family urged him to refuse those possessed, as the demons sought revenge. To this, Father Joseph would reply in Ukrainian, “It is difficult to bear, but we must not fear demons.”
Saint Amphilochius reposed in the Lord on 1 January 1971. In his humility, he never turned away those who came to him, accepting the presence of malicious individuals as God’s will. Among them was his “cell attendant,” who may have collaborated with the atheist authorities. It is suspected that Saint Amphilochius was poisoned.
In 2002, in response to the numerous petitions of the faithful of the Orthodox Church, Schema-Abbot Amphilochius (Holovatyuk) was canonised. Upon the uncovering of his relics, it was discovered that his body, having lain in the earth for over 30 years, remained incorrupt.
The relics of Saint Amphilochius are now enshrined for veneration in the Church of St. Job of Pochaev within the Lavra.
The saint has worked countless miracles and continues to do so. Though not all are recorded, the most significant testament to his sanctity lies in the enduring memory and prayerful appeals to him. His burial place, the reliquary with his relics, and his native village draw pilgrims from far and wide. Even today, people journey from all corners of the earth to seek the aid of this servant of God.
O Holy Father Amphilochius, confessor, healer, and miracle worker, pray to God for us sinners!
“How shall we address you, Father Amphilochius? As a grace-filled physician, for by grace you heal multitudes of the sick? As an unyielding confessor, for you bravely endured persecution and malice? As an earthly angel, for we hold you as a prayerful protector of the Pochaev Monastery. Therefore, with heartfelt tenderness, we cry to you: Save us by your prayers.”
(Sticheron, Tone 1)
Material prepared by the editors of obitel-minsk.ru
Photographs from the Internet
Sources used in preparation:
1. Saint Amphilochius of Pochaev (hram.cy).
2. Photopaterikon
3. Did Stalin's Daughter Save the Elder? (pravmir.ru)
4. Elder of the Last Times (pravoslavie.ru)