Venerable Anthony, Abbot of Siisk

Anthony, baptized Andrew, was born in 1479 in the village of Kekhta on the Northern Dvina into a peasant family, and learned to paint icons. After his wife died he became a monk at the monastery of St Pachomius on the river Kena and was ordained a priest.

Seeking solitude, he went further north with a few companions and in 1520 founded a monastery by Lake Mikhailovo near the river Siya, the future Antoniev-Siysky monastery. More than once he left the community to live alone in the forest, and the brothers brought him back to lead them. He died on 7 December 1556 and was venerated as a saint from 1579.