The Monk Kornilii of Pereyaslavl'

Commemorated on July 22

The Monk Kornilii of Pereyaslavl', in the world Konon, was the son of a Ryazan merchant. In his youthful years he left his parental home and lived for five years as a novice of the Starets/Elder Paul in the Lukyanovsk wilderness near Pereyaslavl'. Afterwards the young ascetic transferred to the Pereyaslavl' monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb on the Peskakh/Sands. Konon eagerly went to church and unquestioningly did everything that they commanded him. In the refectory the holy novice did not sit down with the brethren, but contented himself with what remained, accepting food thrice a week. After five years he took monastic orders with the name Kornilii. From that time no one saw the monk sleeping on a bed. Several of the brethren scoffed at Saint Kornilii as foolish, but the monk quietly endured the insults and intensified his monastic efforts. Having asked permission of the hegumen to live as an hermit, he secluded himself into his own separately constructed cell and constantly practised asceticism in fasting and prayer. One time the brethren found him barely alive: the cell of the monk was locked from within. Three months the Monk Kornilii lay ill: he could take only water and juice. The monk, having recovered and being persuaded by the hegumen, stayed to live with the brethren. Saint Kornilii was sexton in church, he served in the refectory, and toiled in the garden. Blessing the labours of the monk, in the monastery garden there grew excellent apples, which he lovingly distributed to those approaching. From strict fasting the body of the Monk Kornilii was withered up, but he did not cease to toil: with his hands he built a well for the brethren. For thirty years the Monk Kornilii lived in complete silence, being considered by the brethren as deaf and dumb. Before his death on 22 July 1693, the Monk Kornilii made confession to the monastery priest Father Varlaam, communed the Holy Mysteries and took on the schema. The monk was buried in the chapel. After 9 years during the construction of a new church his relics were opened uncorrupt. In the year 1705 Saint Dimitrii, Metropolitan of Rostov, (Comm. 28 October), witnessed to the relics of the Monk Kornilii, and they were situated in the new church in a secluded place. Then the sainted bishop composed a tropar and kondak to the monk.