Nilus of Sora (Nil Sorsky)

Nilus was tonsured at the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery and spent years on Mount Athos and in the East, absorbing the hesychast tradition of inner prayer. Returning to Russia, he settled by the river Sora beyond the Volga and established a skete, a middle way between solitary and communal monasticism in which a few monks lived in poverty, supporting themselves by their own labor. His writings, including his monastic Rule, are devoted to the guarding of the heart, the struggle with the passions, and the practice of mental prayer. At the Moscow council of 1503 he became the leading voice of the Non-possessors, who held that monasteries should not own villages and estates, in contrast to the followers of Joseph of Volokolamsk. He reposed in 1508, asking that his body be cast into the wilderness, and is revered as a great teacher of Russian spirituality.