SERGIUS OF RADONEZH, Saint. - In the world Bartholomew, one of the great Russian saints. Born between 1314-19 and died in the vicinity of Radonezh on 25 September 1392.
Brought to piety from infancy, at the age of 20 he obtained permission to become a monk, which he did after the death of his parents. Not content with the spirit of the contemporary Russian monasteries, S. together with his brother began an eremitical life in a virgin forest near Radonezh and there built with his own hands a chapel in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, a singular thing at that time in Russia. Shortly afterward S. was abandoned by his brother, but he continued on, overcoming every danger to body and soul. He received the tonsure and the monastic name in 1337. Soon the fame of his holiness attracted disciples around S. A small community formed, the nucleus of the famous Laura of the Trinity, of which S. was elected superior. He was also ordained a priest. He nevertheless continued to devote himself to manual labor, giving admirable examples of meekness, poverty and trust in Providence, becoming the incarnation of the ideal of perfection for the Russian people. S. introduced the cenobitic life, by then in decline, giving an example that was imitated by many monasteries in Russia and became the goal of numerous pilgrimages and a torch of the restoration of the homeland after the catastrophe of the Mongol invasion.
He was, according to Kliuchevskii, "the great national educator of the Russian people." He had a special gift for touching hearts and restoring concord among the princes; he knew how to harmonize an intensely interior life with action of national scope; he blessed and encouraged the prince Dimitrii in the war against the Tatars and, learning by revelation of his victory in distant places, had his monks sing a Te Deum. The name of S. must be linked to this victory and he figures as protector of the homeland. While S. was still alive, no fewer than 25 other monasteries derived from the Laura of the Trinity, a number that would have to be tripled to measure that of the convents erected through the initiative of the Saint. He was canonized in 1452 and his cult has been recognized by the Catholic Church with the insertion of his name in the Slavic Epistolary of 1942. Feast on 25 September.
Bibliography4 works
Giovanni Kologrivof