Righteous Procopius the Fool-for-Christ of Ustya

Righteous Procopius of Ustya was a fool-for-Christ venerated in the Vologda land of northern Russia, commemorated on July 8. The synaxarion is explicit that no account of his origin or earthly life has been preserved; he is known chiefly through the incorrupt relics that rested at the parish church of the Entry of the Theotokos in Ustya and through the healings reported there.

According to the tradition recorded by the Orthodox Church in America, the saint's identity became known when he appeared in a vision to a local resident named Savela. His relics were uncovered during the eighteenth century and, for some two hundred years, remained in open view at the Ustya church, where they were venerated as a source of numerous healings. Ecclesiastical authorities examined the relics on more than one occasion before a chapel was dedicated to him and a liturgical service composed in his honor.

Procopius of Ustya shares his July 8 feast with two other saints of the same name, and the three are frequently confused. He is distinct from the Great Martyr Procopius of Caesarea in Palestine, a soldier-martyr of the early fourth century, and from Procopius the Fool-for-Christ of Veliky Ustyug (died 1303), a merchant convert from the Latin West. The Ustya saint is a separate figure of the Vologda region whose biography, unlike theirs, did not survive.