Agathodorus Budanov

Agathodorus Budanov was a Russian hieroschemamonk, one of the most important representatives of St Panteleimon Monastery, a disciple of Fathers Hieronymus and Macarius and confessor for thirty years. He was born on 18 January 1845 in Moscow and reposed on 17 November 1920, after fifty years of monastic life. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Alexander Ivanovich in the world, he was the son of a rich Moscow manufacturer and merchant. In 1868 his elder brother Peter (later the hieromonk Uriel) left for Athos, and Alexander followed him; the third brother, Michael (later the hieromonk Menas), came too. They reached the Holy Mountain on 14 April 1869 and entered the brotherhood under the guidance of the elder Hieronymus. Peter chose the desert of New Thebaid, while Alexander remained in the monastery; after two years he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Agathodorus and in 1873 was sent as a singer to the embassy church at Constantinople. He stood under the direct guidance of the elder Macarius, in full obedience. He wrote: Only those who trust their own reasoning fall into delusion; no one should begin anything without the blessing of his elder. He was ordained hierodeacon on 21 November 1882 and hieromonk on 10 April 1883, then antiprosopos and confessor; he was tonsured into the schema on 30 March 1888. He passed on to his disciples the spiritual habits received from the great elders. In August 1920 he fell ill with fever and died on 17 November. He left a six-⁠hundred-⁠page manuscript on his spiritual experience.