Andrew of Totma

Saint Andrew of Totma was a fool for Christ, a saint of the Russian Church of the seventeenth century. He was born in June in the village of Ust-⁠Tolshma in the Totma district (now the village of Krasnoye), according to one source in 1638, and died in 1673 at Totma, at the age of thirty-⁠five. His commemoration is on 10 October by the old calendar (23 October by the new) and on the third Sunday after Pentecost, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda.

He was born into a peasant family and was baptized in honour of Saint Andrew Stratelates. From his parents he received a religious upbringing, strengthened in the village church of Ust-⁠Tolshma. Following the commandments of the Gospel, he left his parents' house and withdrew to deserted places. When he returned, he did not find his parents alive and left Ust-⁠Tolshma for ever.

He settled at the Resurrection Monastery at Galich. The Serbian source says that he also became a monk there. On the advice of the abbot of the monastery, Stephen, he took up the labour of foolishness for Christ and began to go about the neighbouring towns and monasteries to venerate the holy places. After that he returned to the monastery and lived there until the death of the abbot Stephen.

Leaving the monastery, he came to Totma, where at night he prayed and by day gathered alms. His foolishness for Christ lasted ten years. Most often he stayed near the church of the Resurrection in the town of Totma, on the bank of the river Sukhona. There, in winter and summer, he went barefoot, in poor and torn clothes, and ate only bread and water, just enough not to die of hunger. He died at thirty-⁠five, probably wearing out his body by the severity of his fasting.