Saint Innocent was
an educator and
missionary
bishop to the
region around
Irkutsk, a city
located near
Lake Baikal in
southeastern
Siberia, close
to the borders
of Mongolia and
China. He
labored there
for the Lord for
ten years,
1721-1731,
at a
time of enormous
moral decadence.
He had profound
intellectual and
spiritual gifts:
the gifts of
teaching,
languages,
preaching and
guiding people
to God and moral
living; gifts
of
humility,
simplicity,
patience,
endurance and
love for all
people.
In a few short
years he brought
many people to
the Orthodox
Faith and vastly
improved the
moral and
spiritual
climate of the
"Pioneer East"
of the Irkutsk
region. He
established
schools and
instructed the
clergy and the
people both by
his words and by
the power of his
own example of
holy living. He
learned the
language of the
native
inhabitants of
the region in
order to lead
many of them to
know and love
the Lord. His
devotion to
serving God as a
missionary to
all races and
classes of
people in the
far-off land of
Siberia, and his
great love and
kindness to all
people, endeared
him to his flock
as the
"Holy Man of
Siberia."
The last ten
years of his
life were very
different from
his earlier
years in urban
European Russia.
A priest-monk,
scholar, teacher
and
administrator in
Kiev, Moscow and
St. Petersburg,
he served at the
best and most
prestigious
theological
schools and
cathedrals in
the early
eighteenth
century. St.
Innocent could
have lived a
comfortable life
as an urban
monk-priest-professor.
But in 1721,
with the consent
of Peter the
Great, Saint
Innocent was
consecrated
Bishop of China.
After an entire
year of
difficult
travel, he and
his companions
finally reached
the Chinese
border, near
Irkutsk. He was
refused entry.
He continued
trying to gain
permission to
enter China for
five years. He
had to cope with
many
difficulties:
the
disappointment
of not
fulfilling his
mission to
China, and of
being homeless,
unemployed,
without income,
thousands of
miles from his
home. But
instead of
feeling sorry
for himself, he
accepted his
suffering and
trusted God,
realizing that
his real mission
was to serve
where he was,
and not in
China. Finally,
in 1727, he was
appointed the
first bishop of
Irkutsk, in
which capacity
he continued his
missionary work.
In 1731,
after only a
little more than
four years as
bishop of
Irkutsk, the
saint fell
asleep in the
Lord, and was
buried under the
altar of the
wooden church at
the Ascension
Monastery where
he had lived. In
1766, when the
church burned
down, it was
discovered that
not only had the
fire not harmed
St. Innocent’s
body, but that
it had remained
"incorrupt" (his
flesh had not
rotted and
disappeared from
his bones).
Between 1766 and
1800, so many
miracles were
attributed to
St. Innocent,
that the
citizens of
Irkutsk appealed
to have their
local saint
formally and
universally
glorified by the
Church, which
was granted in
1804.
In 1921 the
Communists
confiscated the
holy relics
(body) of
Irkutsk’s
beloved saint.
Labeled only as
a "Siberian
mummy," his holy
remains were
displayed in
museums until
1990, when
miraculously,
St. Innocent’s
relics were
discovered,
identified,
given back to
the Church, and
returned to the
cathedral in
Irkutsk on
September 2,
1990, amidst
great joy and
weeping. Within
two months after
that, all of the
bishop’s
vestments in
which the saint
had been buried,
plus the cross
that had been in
his hand, were
all miraculously
discovered and
returned to the
saint. The
full-sized
reliquary
containing the
saint's relics (photo
to the upper
left), is
located in the
Bishop's
Cathedral in the
Znamensky
Women's
Monastery in
Irkutsk,
Siberia (photo
to the upper
right). A
close-up view of
St. Innocent's
relics is seen
in the third
photo, just
above.
