Stolen from his shrine in 1917, the saint's body was thought to be lost but was eventually found in storage in a museum and returned to Belgorod in 1991.

[1] After his arrival in Belgorod, Joasaph was noted for his untiring efforts for his diocese and especially for his work to help those in need, often visiting the poor and the sick.

The miraculous power of Joasaph's relics became known throughout the Russian Empire, and every year more people came to Belgorod to seek help.

Finally, in 1910, Tsar Nicholas II asked the Holy Synod to glorify Joasaph as a saint, which it agreed to do.

[2] In the summer of 1914, when news came of the Austro-Hungarian monitor bombardment of the Serbian city of Belgrade beginning on 29 July 1914, one landowner, Prince Obolensky, spoke stirringly to his peasantry of the need for war with Austria, and they reacted enthusiastically.

In the late 1980s the remains were discovered in the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad, and on 16 September 1991 they were solemnly returned to the new Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Belgorod, the occasion being marked by a service in which Patriarch Alexy II took part.

[5] The Feast of the Opening of the Relics of St. Joasaph, Bishop of Belgorod, is celebrated on 4/17 September and also on 10/23 December, the date of his death.