Cyril

Holy Blessed Cyril was the first igumen of the Holy Trinity monastery in Astrakhan and passed away in 1576. The Church of Astrakhan honours him as a saint and wonderworker, on 18 March by the old calendar.

After Astrakhan was joined to the Muscovite state, the first voivode, Serebryany-⁠Obolensky, asked Tsar Ivan the Terrible to send "a holy man, a monk" who would teach people what is good and bring them to the faith. In 1568 the igumen Cyril was sent to Astrakhan with a tsar's charter to build a community monastery. He built the church of the Holy Trinity, that of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, and that of Saint Nicholas. In his petition to the tsar of 1572 he complained of oppression by some officials, and Ivan IV, by two charters of 1574 and 1575, confirmed his right to the yearly allowance and protected him.

He worked zealously to enlighten the Astrakhan region and, by his meekness and piety, won respect even among Muslims, who to this day call him Kara-⁠Daud ("Black David"). Memorial services are often held at his grave, and people take sand from it, mix it with water and give it to the sick. After a great fire, a voivode's wife saw him standing on his grave and making the sign of the cross over the flames, which went out; for this a chapel was raised over the grave, rebuilt in 1677.

The menologion of Dimitry Sambikin also mentions him, wrongly, under the heading of a Cyril of Arkhangelsk (see the note for 10 July), with the year 1592 and the day 10 July, but states that his commemoration in Astrakhan is on 18 March.