Mass Media Overview
5 prophets revered in Russia. St. Procopius of Ustyug
01.04.2022 08:56
https://www.rbth.com
History
March 21 2022
Georgy Manaev
Photo: The Cathedral of Saint Procopius in Veliky Ustyug, Russia. Legion Media
All of them lived before 1917, some of them were beatified and some were denied by the Orthodox Church, but all of them prophesied about the future of Russia – and some predictions, of course, came true.
1. St. Procopius of Ustyug
Procopius of Ustyug, who lived in the 13th century, was known as a holy fool – first in Novgorod and then in Veliky Ustyug. He went about in robes, slept on the street – on the ground, on stones and heaps of garbage. He called upon the townspeople to pray and repent, so that Veliky Ustyug wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah – these cities, according to the Old Testament, were punished with burning rain.
In the Summer of 1290, Procopius again begged the people of Veliky Ustyug to repent. A week later, a fearsome storm broke out. The residents of Ustyug rushed to the church where they found Prokopy praying fervently. According to legend, Procopius saved Veliky Ustyug by driving a “stone cloud” away from the town, to a distance of 20 miles, where “large burning stones fell like rain”, Life of Procopius of Ustyug says.
Procopius was not Russian. He fled East Prussia on a ship laden with goods and ended up in Novgorod. Struck by the sight of the multitude of churches and monasteries, he converted to the Orthodox faith, gave away all his wealth and became a fool for God. He later fled Novgorod to escape veneration by the locals.
Procopius lived for about 13 years after the prophecy of the stone rain. The alleged “Great Ustyug” meteorite probably fell on June 25, 1290, near the village of Kotovalovo, about 20 km northwest of the city of Veliky Ustyug. However, so far, no fossil remains of the “stone rain” have been discovered, so it is labeled as “doubtful” in the international register of meteorites.