Friday, September 25

Medieval · c. 1314 – 1392

St Sergius of Radonezh

Abbot of the Holy Trinity, patron of Russia

Born Bartholomew to a boyar family of Rostov ruined by Tatar exactions, he struggled at letters as a boy until, the Life relates, a mysterious elder blessed him and understanding was opened. After his parents' death he withdrew with his brother into the forest of Makovets, built a wooden chapel of the Holy Trinity, and endured years of solitude among bears and hunger. Disciples gathered despite him, and the community became the Trinity monastery, where Sergius served as abbot who patched his own clothes and built the brothers' cells with his own hands, restoring the common life to Russian monasticism. All Russia sought his word: he reconciled feuding princes, and in 1380 blessed Grand Prince Dmitri before the battle of Kulikovo against the Horde. His disciples founded dozens of monasteries, monastic colonies that shaped the Russian north. He reposed on 25 September 1392; his Trinity-St Sergius Lavra remains the heart of Russian Orthodoxy.

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