The day of the repose of St. Sergius, abbot of Radonezh, a miracle worker of all Russia (08/10)

The Monk Sergius of Radonezh was born in 1314 into the family of pious boyars Kirill and Maria. From a young age, Sergius (who bore the name Bartholomew in the world) wanted to devote his entire life to serving God. However, Kirill and Maria did not bless their son for monastic life for a long time. And only when they, shortly before their righteous death, retired to the monastery, St. Sergius of Radonezh and his older brother Stefan settled on a wooded hill, lost in a remote thicket.

The future Abbot of the Russian land was then 23 years old. With their own hands, the brothers built a wooden cell and a church here, which, at their request, was consecrated in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity. Life in deep solitude proved beyond the power of the Rev's elder brother, Stephen, and he soon withdrew from these places. Venerable Sergius was left completely alone. With even greater diligence, he surrendered to the feat of fasting and prayer. Soon the young man’s cherished wish came true —, the abbot of one of the nearby monasteries, Mitrofan, tonsured him a monk.

St. Sergius of Radonezh did not spend a single hour of time idle. Wisely combining prayer and labor, psalm singing and reading divine books, he ascended from strength to strength, getting closer to Christ every day of his life. The only desire of St. Sergius of Radonezh was to save his own soul. He wanted to live and die in his forest privacy.

Soon, people began to settle around St. Sergius who wanted to escape under his leadership. At the urgent request of the disciples, Sergius of Radonezh becomes a priest and abbot of the monastery he founded. Humility, patience, love for God and neighbors made the Monk a great prayer book and sad person for the Russian land even during his earthly life.

Around 1372, Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople, who knew about the high life of the Russian abbot, sent St. Sergius of Radonezh a cross, a paraman, a schema and a letter in which he blessed the monk and advised him to introduce a dormitory charter in the Trinity Monastery.

In 1380, when the ruler of the Golden Horde, Mamai, led regiments to destroy the Russian land, Grand Duke Dimitri Ioannovich, preparing to go on a campaign, asked St. Sergius of Radonezh for blessings and prayers. «If enemies want honor and glory from us, — the Reverend said to him, — we will give to them; if they want gold and silver, we will give this too; but for the name of Christ, for the Orthodox faith, we must lay down our soul and shed blood—. These words of St. Sergius of Radonezh are, as it were, an interpretation of the well-known gospel words: «Seek first the Kingdom of God and its truth, and all this will be added to you» (Matthew. 6, 33).

St. Sergius of Radonezh died on September 25 (old style) 1392; according to tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church, the day of his death according to the new style is considered October 8. Before his death, he commanded the brethren, first of all, to strictly preserve the purity of the Orthodox faith. The Monk also bequeathed to maintain unanimity, spiritual and physical purity, unhypocritical love, to move away from evil desires, to abstain in food and drink, to have zeal for humility and strange love.

For more than six hundred years now, St. Sergius of Radonezh has been called the Abbot of the Russian Land. And his dying words were, of course, addressed not only to the brethren of the monastery he founded. They are addressed to every Russian person.

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