The superstitious villagers of Verkola considered the unexpected death of the boy a punishment for some secret sins, so they left his body in the forest without funeral service and burial, barely covered with brushwood and birch bark and fenced.

Archaeological excavations have shown that in the XVI century, not far from Verkola, there was a cemetery of the mortgaged dead buried in a log cabin.

[2] In 1648, by order of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich of Russia was founded the St. Artemius of Verkola monastery, and relics of the saint was moved into it.

[citation needed] Iconographer Philip Zimmerman of New Florence, PA received a waking vision of the child saint who asked him, "to paint what he saw.

After much discernment and 5 years of contemplation Mr. Zimmerman painted what he saw at the direction of Father John Namie of the Antiochian Village Camp located in Bolivar, PA.