Five brothers of Novgorod who lived in piety and founded the Sokolnitsky Monastery, where they labored in monastic struggle.
The Holy and Righteous Alfanov Brothers of the Sokolnitsky Monastery in Novgorod
The Alfanov Brothers, known also as the Sokolnitsky brothers, were five kinsmen of Novgorod who lived in the fourteenth century: Niketas, Cyril, Nikephoros, Clement, and Isaac. By tradition they are remembered for their righteous manner of life and for founding the Sokolnitsky Monastery, where a wooden church dedicated to Saint Nicholas was raised on the Sokol hill and a monastic community established in 1389.
They are commemorated together as a single group rather than individually. The synaxarion connects their lives to a period of political danger in Novgorod, relating that their kinship to a chronicler named James Anphalov drew misfortune upon them, which they bore as an innocent suffering.
According to the chronicle account, the brothers were kinsmen of James (also called Iakov) Anphalov, surnamed Alfanov, who fled to the Dvina to escape pursuit arising from his dealings with Moscow. The synaxarion relates that the brothers were subjected to misfortune on account of their relation to him, and that they purified themselves through their innocent suffering.
The brothers were originally enshrined at the Sokolnitsky Monastery they had founded. When that monastery was destroyed by fire, their holy relics were translated to the Antoniev Monastery on May 4, 1775. A miracle associated with their relics is recorded in the Tale of the Holy Brothers.
Their memory is kept on May 4 and June 17.
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Named brother-group commemorated as one.