Antony of Siya

Anthony of Siya (also called Anthony Siysky) was a Russian Orthodox monastic founder of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, remembered as the originator of the Holy Trinity monastery on the River Siya in the Dvina country of the Russian North. Traditional accounts place his birth in the village of Kekhta on the Northern Dvina, in a family of relatively prosperous peasants; in baptism he received the name Andrei (Andrew). After he was orphaned he went to Novgorod, then a major commercial and ecclesiastical center, and entered the household of a boyar. There he learned letters and the craft of icon painting. He married, but his wife died after about a year, and the marriage is described as childless. He then distributed what remained of his goods and sought the monastic life.

He received the tonsure with the name Anthony at a monastery associated with Saint Pachomius in the Kargopol region, on the River Kena, and remained there for a number of years (the later Life speaks of about seven) under that elder’s guidance. Seeking stricter solitude, he left with a small group of companions and wandered the forests of the northern marches. They first attempted to settle on Mikhailov Island on the River Siya, raising a cross and a chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity, but hostility from local inhabitants, who destroyed their cells, forced them to move. They established themselves at a more secluded site on a lake connected with the Siya, at a considerable distance from Kholmogory. There Anthony built a church in honor of the Holy Trinity, and a community gathered around him.

In the early sixteenth century this hermitage was organized as a coenobitic monastery, later known as the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. The house obtained confirmation of its lands and privileges from the Muscovite court—accounts mention a princely charter in the period of Vasily III—and it became one of the notable Trinity monasteries of the Pomor North. Anthony served as igumen, yet he repeatedly tried to lay down administrative office in order to live as a hermit, withdrawing at times to nearby islands or sketes and returning when the brethren insisted. He was remembered for ascetic severity, for continuing to paint icons, and for a reputation for spiritual counsel. In the later sixteenth century the monastery enjoyed royal patronage, including that of Ivan IV, and grew into a significant landowner and religious center.

Anthony died at his monastery on 7 December 1556 and was buried there. Local veneration began soon afterward. A hagiographical Life was composed in the later sixteenth century by the monk Jonah of Siya, and the saint was entered into the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church, with his principal feast on 7 December (Julian). His relics were kept at the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery, which continued to figure in northern Russian monasticism in the generations after his death.