Sergei of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer
25 September -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Teachers, page 473
Born in Rostov in 1314, Sergei founded, together with his
brother Stephen, the famous monastery of the Holy Trinity,
near Moscow, which re-established the community life that
had been lost in Russia through the Tartar invasion. Sergei
had great influence and stopped civil wars between Russian
princes and inspired Prince Dimitri to resist another
invasion from the Tartars in 1380. Two years before that,
he had been elected Metropolitan but had refused the office.
Altogether, he founded forty monasteries and is regarded as
the greatest of the Russian saints and is patron of All
Russia. He died on this day in 1392.