Righteous Prokopius, Fool-for-Christ, Wonderworker of Ustiug

According to tradition, Procopius came from a merchant family of the West and traded in Novgorod. There he was taught the Orthodox faith by Barlaam of Khutyn and was baptized. He gave away his goods, part to the poor and part to the Khutyn monastery, and became a fool for Christ. He later settled in Veliky Ustyug in the far north, where he spent his nights in prayer on the porch of the cathedral and his days wandering the town as a simpleton.

Tradition holds that in 1290 he called the people to repentance and prayed before the icon of the Annunciation, and that a threatened calamity, a fall of stones outside the town, passed Ustyug by. He died in 1303 and was buried at the cathedral. The Church honours him as a wonderworker.