Sophronius Bishop of Irkutsk

Sophronius, Bishop of Irkutsk, was an eighteenth-century Russian hierarch and missionary, honored as a wonderworker of all Siberia. His family name was Kristalevsky, and he was born around 1703-1704 in the Chernigov region of Little Russia. He is commemorated on March 30, the day of his repose, and on June 30, the day of the uncovering of his relics.

He studied at the Kiev Theological Academy and entered the Krasnogorsk Transfiguration monastery, where an elder brother already served, receiving monastic tonsure on April 23, 1730, and taking the name Sophronius in honor of Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem. After ordination he served as treasurer of the Zolotonosh monastery and as steward to a bishop, and was then called to the Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg, where he rose to be treasurer and afterward Superior.

On April 18, 1753 he was consecrated Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk, arriving in his vast Siberian diocese the following year. As bishop he reorganized the diocesan administration, monasteries, and parishes, issued decrees for the education of the clergy and the right order of the services, and gave himself to the conversion of the pagan peoples and the strengthening of the Christians of Siberia. He was known for his personal asceticism, eating sparingly and passing much of the night in prayer.

Saint Sophronius reposed on March 30, 1771. His body was found to remain incorrupt in the period before his burial, and this, together with miracles recorded at his tomb, gave rise to his veneration. He was glorified by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1918.