St.Sergius of  Radonezh.

      St.Sergius of Radonezh is one of the greatest Russian saints. He
is the patron-saint of all Russia. Hi was born in 1314 in the village of
Varnitsy near Rostov the Great in a family of pious boyar St.Cyril and
St.Maria. When the parents of St.Sergius died, he came to this place
together with his elder brother Stephen, who was a monk already. At that
time, St.Sergius was 23 years old, and he was a layman. The two brothers
built a church in the name of the Holy Trinity and a  wooden cell in the
forest. This place at that time was very remote and deserted, and there
were no people for about 10 miles around. Several months later Stephen
left St.Sergius alone and went to live in a monastery in Moscow because
life in the wilderness was too difficult for him.

      For 3 years, St.Sergius lived alone in the woods, and  then  took 
his monastic  vows. It was then that he received the name Sergius.
Before that he was called Bartholomew. When a person takes the monastic
vows, he is given a new name, because it is the beginning of a new life
for one — a life of repentance and  prayer and reliance on God.

      Soon other people who heard of St. Sergius' holy life started
coming to him in order to become his disciples. They wanted to live
under his spiritual guidance. They built their own cells in the forest
around St.Sergius' one. In that way the monastery appeared. At that
time, monasteries were quite different from what they are today. Every
monk had his own cell and provided himself for all his needs. The cells
were at some distance from each other, so that the monks would only see
each other in the church where they came together for daily prayer. From
the time of St.Sergius, they started living and working together as they
do now.

      St.Sergius had a vision one night as he was praying for his
monastery and disciples, so that the Lord helped them in their daily
feats. He suddenly saw a heavenly light coming down into his cell and as
he went out he saw numerous beautiful birds flying around and above him.
A voice from heaven, calling him by his name, said: "As many birds you
see now, so many disciples and followers decorated with every virtue you
will see on this place".

      In 1380, the Grand Prince of Moscow Dimitry, who was called later
Dimitry Donskoy, came to ask for  St.Sergius' prayer and blessing before
a decisive  battle against the Tartars who oppressed Russia at that
time. Thanks to St.Sergius' prayers he won the battle and Russia got the
opportunity to egain its  independence, St.Sergius' role was also
decisive in the unification of Russia around Moscow. In the lifetime of
St.Sergius Russian princes were continuously waging wars against one
another. St.Sergius reconciled the princes with the Grand Prince of
Moscow and persuaded them to submit to him.

      St.Sergius refused to meet even the most urgent demands of life.
His only food was bread and water. Some times his junior brother Peter
brought bread to him from Radonezh. Once a hungry wild bear came out to
St.Sergius and he gave him some bread. The beast liked the hospitaly of
the hermit and would come to him for treat. St.Sergius shared the last
piece of bread with the bear frequently. He  even gave the bear his
daily bread and so was without food. This peaceful contact of St.Sergius
with a wild animal represents the original obedience of all the animals
to the first-created human being. When a person lives according to the 
Gospel Commandments and obeys God, then other creatures submit
themselves to him.

      The Moscow Metropolitan St.Alexios felt his last day was near, he
thought of St.Sergius as the successor to the metropolitan seat. But
St.Sergius was a very humble man. He preferred the life in his remote
monastery and refused to accept  the golden cross Metropolitan Alexios
offered him.

      When  St.Sergius was celebrating Divine Liturgy, other priests saw
an angel  who was assisting him. Once, a fire from heaven came into the
chalice, and St.Sergius took it in with the Holy Communion.

      Once St. Sergius brought back to life with his prayer a dead child
of a local peasant who had already brought a coffin for his son.

      St.Sergius always worked a lot in the monastery. He looked after
the plants,  baked bread, brought water for all the others, and even
helped them to build their cells. At night, he went around the monastery
to see what the monks were doing. If they were not praying, as they were
supposed to, he knocked on the door to make them get up to pray.

      On his last day, St.Sergius took the Holy Communion and died
peacefully. He  was born in 1314 and died in 1392. He lived 78 years,
which was very long for his  time. 30 years after his death, his holy
relics were found undecayed and put in a wooden shrine.