Saint Bogolep the Child Schema-Monk

Saint Bogolep was born in Moscow in 1647 to pious parents, Jacob Lukin Ushakov and his wife Catherine, and was baptized with the name Boris.

The child revealed an extraordinary inclination for ascetic labors; he would not drink milk from his mother's breast on Wednesdays and Fridays. When the child heard the bell ring for Divine services in the local church, he would begin to cry, only ceasing once he was taken to church, where a joyful expression filled his face.

When a plague seized Russia, the pious child became ill. His legs were covered in deep, painful sores, yet he continued to attend church. Despite the care of his parents and physicians, his legs healed only for a form of leprosy to appear on his face. When a monk came to visit the sick child, Boris became even more fervent in his love for God.

Sensing that their seven-year-old child was not fit for life in the secular world, his parents gave him over to the monastic life. In the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, the righteous child was tonsured a monk with the name Bogolep (the Russian translation of the Greek name Theoprepius), and soon after, he was clothed in the Great Schema.

The child Schema-monk was not destined to astonish the world with his labors for long. Two days after receiving the Schema, he grew gravely ill; on the third day, in 1654, he delivered his soul and entered the heavenly kingdom. The blessed child was buried in the city of Chorny Yar, near the church where he had received the Schema.

In 1670, during the rebellion of the Don Cossack leader Stenka Razin against Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Razin sent a regiment of Tatars to destroy Chorny Yar. As they approached the city, the rebels saw a child Schema-monk walking on the walls who said to them, 'Depart from here, wretched ones! You cannot do anything to this city, because God has placed me to guard it.'

The rebels were prevented from entering the city by an invisible power and were suddenly struck blind. Only after they had fled many miles was their vision restored, and Moscow troops soon regained the city.