Alexander of Siya

Saint Alexander of Siya (died after 1556) was a disciple of Saint Anthony of Siya and one of the founders of the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Siya. He is venerated locally on 11 July, in the synaxis of the saints of Novgorod.

In 1513 Alexander left, with Saints Anthony and Joachim, the monastery of the Transfiguration at Kenskoe, for ascetic labours in the wilderness. The monks reached the Temny rapid on the river Yemtsa, where they made themselves a hut and a chapel, and soon a church dedicated to Saint Nicholas and cells. There the hermits, who gathered to the number of seven, lived seven years, but were forced to leave the place because of the hostility of the people around.

About the year 1520 they settled on an island in Lake Mikhailovskoe, into which the river Siya flows, and founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity. For four years the disciples of Saint Anthony bore afflictions and want, but the glory of their abbot's labours spread and many wished to join the brotherhood. Seeing this, Saint Anthony sent his disciples, Alexander and Isaiah, to Moscow, to the Grand Prince Vasily III Ivanovich, that the sovereign might order the building of the monastery, his house of prayer, in the desert place, in the wild forest, that the brethren be gathered and the land ploughed. The Grand Prince gave the monastery a charter and also sent church vessels and vestments in abundance.

Saint Alexander laboured in the Siya monastery to the end of his life and was buried there. In the 1590s a tradition was established in the monastery of a general memorial service for the six first disciples of Saint Anthony, Alexander, Isaiah, Joachim, Elisha, Alexander the second and Jonah, on the fourth Saturday of Great Lent.