Anthony of Siya
[Image:Святой Преподобный Антоний Сийский (фрагмент иконы).jpg|thumb|right|Russian icon depicting St. Anthony of Siya]
Anthony of Siya was a Russian Orthodox monk who was proclaimed a saint after his death. He founded the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery on the Siya River, a tributary of the Northern Dvina, in modern Arkhangelsk Oblast, in the Russian North. He was the last significant monastic saint.
Life
Anthony was born a peasant in 1478. He married while a young man and was a normal peasant until after the death of his wife. He then entered the monastery at Kargopol. He did not stay there long and afterward became a wandering monk along the shores of the Arctic Ocean.In 1520, Anthony founded his monastery. He received permission from Vasily III to erect monastic buildings on state land. He also was a vocal advocate of monastic control of peasant villages. Anthony's monastery was under the ecclesiastical control of the archbishop of Novgorod within the Russian Church. He died in 1556.
Legacy
Vasily's grandson, Ivan, wrote a biography on Anthony. The monk Jonah also wrote a vita of Anthony in 1578. Anthony was recognized as a saint of national importance in 1610.In The Life of and Miracles of Antony Siysky, it begins with: