Saint Sergius of Radonezh

Saint Sergius of Radonezh was a Russian monk, first a hermit and then hegumen, that is, superior, of the community from which the monastery of the Holy Trinity near Moscow grew. He lived in the fourteenth century in the Church of Rus’, which after the schism of 1054 was not in communion with Rome. The Orthodox call him the great master of Russian monastic life and the protector of Russia. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him on September 25.

According to his Life, written in the early fifteenth century by the monk Epiphanius the Wise, he was born into a boyar family from the region of Rostov and received the name Bartholomew at baptism. The year of his birth is not certain: about 1314 is given most often, but later years as well. During a time of political turmoil the family became poor and moved to Radonezh near Moscow.

At about the age of twenty, following the example of the Desert Fathers, he settled in the forest near Radonezh together with his elder brother Stephen, who had become a monk after his wife’s death. They built a cell and a small wooden church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Stephen could not bear the harsh life in the wilderness and left. Bartholomew remained alone, made his monastic vows and took the name Sergius. In time people began to come to him who wanted to live as he did, in prayer and complete renunciation of possessions.

He was elected hegumen and ordained a priest. Later he introduced the common life, in which the monks owned nothing of their own. Some of the brethren opposed this change, and Sergius, not wanting a quarrel, left the monastery for a time, until he was asked to return. He himself and his disciples founded further monasteries, and his community became a center of monastic life in the north of Rus’. He declined when he was offered the dignity of Metropolitan of Moscow.

The Martyrology calls him a gentle man, a counselor of princes and a consoler of the faithful. John Paul II recalled that he served not only the Church but also the society of a country torn by strife and threatened from outside, and that hagiographers compared him with Saint Francis of Assisi. According to tradition, in 1380 he blessed Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow before the battle with the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field and foretold his victory.

He died in his monastery on September 25, 1392. The Russian Church has venerated him as a saint since the fifteenth century. His relics rest in the church of the Holy Trinity in the Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius at Sergiyev Posad, to which pilgrims have come for centuries; the Moscow Theological Academy also has its seat there.

He was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology in 2001, during the pontificate of John Paul II, together with several other Orthodox saints who lived after 1054. On the six hundredth anniversary of his death, in 1992, the Pope prayed that through the intercession of Saint Sergius all Christians in Russia might contribute to the spiritual growth of their society.