Zalizo, Yov

Zalizo, Yov (Залізо, Йов; or Желізо; Zhelizo; secular name: Ivan), b 1551 in the Kolomyia region, d 28 October 1651 in Pochaiv. Monk and saint of the Ukrainian Orthodox church. He was tonsured at the Transfiguration Monastery in Uhornyky when he was 12 years old, and made a hieromonk in 1581. In 1584 Prince Kostiantyn Vasyl Ostrozky invited him to become hegumen of the Dubno Monastery. There he founded a brotherhood whose members transcribed church books. Ca 1597 he left for the Pochaiv Monastery, where he served as hegumen for the next 50 years. He introduced a strict Studite monastic order at the monastery and continued administrative and educational activities. Under his leadership the monastery was expanded, and gained fame throughout Ukraine. He persuaded the Orthodox magnates F. and Ye. Domashovsky to fund the building in 1649 of the Church of the Holy Trinity, in which a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God was placed. Zalizo actively defended the Orthodox church, and in 1628 he participated in the Kyiv synod that condemned Meletii Smotrytsky’s attempts to extend the church union (see Church Union of Berestia). He translated much patristic literature and composed sermons. A selection of these works was published in Kievskaia starina in 1885; the originals were taken from the Pochaiv Monastery in 1932 to Warsaw, where they subsequently perished.

Zalizo was greatly revered during his life, and many miracles were associated with him. His relics were discovered in 1659 by Metropolitan Dionisii Balaban, who had him canonized. He was known popularly as the Venerable Yov; his feast is celebrated several times during the year. His life, by the monk Dosyfei, was published in Pochaiv in 1791.

Arkadii Zhukovsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]