Decanonization

[16][17] In the Russian Orthodox Church, the most famous case is the decanonization of the Right-Believing princess of Anna of Kashin at the Great Moscow Synod in 1677–1678.

[18][19] The reforms that began under Alexis Mikhailovich and continued under Peter I and his followers demanded a political and ecclesiastical separation from the previous tradition and national culture.

[20] In Peter's times, the veneration of the martyrs Anthony, John, and Eustathius, who wore beards, suffered from a clean-shaven pagan knyaz, was stopped.

Among those saints decanonized were Kakwykylla, Wilgefortis, Werner, Liban and a host of others deemed to be legendary figures with no historical veracity.

The official position of the church is that persons may still maintain private devotions to these saints, however they are forbidden from public veneration as there is no sufficient evidence for their existence.