Righteous Virgin Glykerίa of Novgorod

Commemorated on May 13.

The scarcity of information about Saint Glykeria (Γλυκερία) indicates that she kept the details of her life and ascetical struggles hidden from those around her. She was the daughter of Panteleimon, an official of Legoscha Street in Great Novgorod.

On July 14, 1572, her body was found incorrupt, fifty years after her repose. An old woman named Nastasia told Archbishop Leonid of Novgorod that she had received healing fifty years before, when Saint Glykeria was buried. The second Novgorod Chronicle states that her tomb was discovered behind the stone church of the Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus, and that her relics were incorrupt. Afterward, Archbishop Leonid solemnly placed the Saint's relics in the church of Saints Florus and Laurus.

On the same day, at the Righteous one's tomb, the four-year-old son of Bogdan Suvorov was healed of an illness, after which other miraculous healings occurred. These were the basis for her canonization.

The Holy Virgin Glykeria is depicted on an ancient icon of the Novgorod wonderworkers. At the top of the icon, Sophia, the Wisdom of God, is depicted. Next we see the Mother of God and Saint John the Forerunner; then there are six rows of Novgorod Saints. In the fourth row is Venerable Anna of Novgorod (February 10). The Righteous Glykeria is in the sixth row.

In the middle of the XIX century, a chapel dedicated to Saint Glykeria was built in the Tikhvin church of Moscow's Simonov Monastery.