The Monk Nil of Stolobensk
Commemorated on May 27
The Monk Nil of
Stolobensk reposed on 7 December 1554 (the account about his life is
located under this day).
Many years
afterwards, on the Island of Lake Seliger, where the holy ascetic had
asceticised, there came the priest-monk German and immediately after him the
hill-dweller and wanderer Boris. They settled together on the island and built
a church in honour of the Theophany, with a chapel in the name of Saint Vasilii
(Basil) the Moscow Wonderworker. At this site where the Monk Nil had
asceticised there in time grew up a monastery, named after him. An icon of the
Monk Nil was written by the monks of the Orshin monastery, and numerous
miracles of healings of the sick began to occur at the gravesite of the saint.
Later at the monastery lived Sainted Nektarii, Archbishop of Sibirsk and
Tobol'sk, and he decided to build a stone church to replace the former wooden one.
During the time of the laying of the foundations, the earth crumbled away and
revealed the incorrupt relics of the Monk Nil. The Uncovering of the Relics
occurred on 27 May 1667, and simultaneously with this was established a
feastday to the monk in honour of the event.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
