ST. ANTHONY "PRICHELESSKY"

By Vladimir Moss

Hieromonk Anthony (“Prichelessky”), was a former monk of the Kiev Caves Lavra. He took part in the Russo-Japanese War and in the siege of Port Arthur in 1904-05 as a naval Priest. He fell into Japanese captivity, but was released through the efforts of Japanese Orthodox Christians. Later, he continued to serve as a military priest in the First World War and in the Civil War on the side of the Whites. From the end of the 1930s he was hiding in the village of Prichelesski (now Antonovka) in Mogilev province. He served in secret in houses with mainly wooden church utensils and a travelling altar. He was greatly venerated by the Christians who hid him from the authorities, and had the gift of clairvoyance. In his later years he was ill, and had the sight of only one eye. He did not recognize the Moscow Patriarchate. He died in the middle of the 1970s, and was canonized by the Russian True Orthodox Church in 2011.