Blessed Peter of Uglich was a Russian priest who, in the early nineteenth century, took up the demanding ascetic path of foolishness-for-Christ. He is identified in Russian sources with the priest Peter Tomanitsky, sometimes called Peter Ierusalimsky after the parish in Uglich where he had served, and he is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on September 3 (September 16 on the civil calendar). He reposed in 1866.
By tradition, his entry into the way of holy foolishness grew out of a tragic ordeal. As a parish priest he is said to have demanded conscientious and selfless fulfillment of clerical duties, which brought him into conflict with fellow clergy; the same sources relate that an attempt was made to poison him, after which he suffered a lasting mental affliction. This was given as the reason for his removal from office and the loss of his priestly rank in 1814. In the decades that followed he lived as a fool-for-Christ.
A fool-for-Christ (in the Russian tradition, a yurodivy) embraces an unconventional manner of life that appears to others as madness, in order to renounce worldly praise, war against pride, and, through symbolic words and actions, point those around them toward the will of God. This form of asceticism was especially widespread in Russia, and Peter of Uglich belongs to its long lineage. He died in early September 1866, and Russian accounts relate that memorial services were held continuously at his coffin amid a large gathering of people. By his own wish his body was taken to Rybinsk and buried at the women's Sophia Monastery.
