Cyril of Beloozero

Venerable Cyril of Beloozero, in the world Kozma, was a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and, in 1397, founder of the Kirillo-⁠Belozersky monastery in northern Russia. He fell asleep in 1427 and is remembered on 9 June (22 June on the new calendar).

He was born in 1337 in Moscow. His origins are not clear, but he was close to the boyar family of the Velyaminovs; in youth he was treasurer to the boyar Timothy Velyaminov. The boyar did not approve of Kozma's wish to enter monasticism, but Sergius' friend, Venerable Stephen of Makhrishch, clothed him in the cassock and persuaded his master to let him go. His parents died when he was a child. Around 1380 he was tonsured at the Simonov monastery, under Abbot Theodore, Sergius' nephew, and received the name Cyril. There he met Saint Sergius, with whom he spoke many times. From the start he devoted himself to strict asceticism, but his elder held him back, forbidding “labours beyond his strength.” To hide his virtues, he added to his struggle foolishness for Christ. The abbot punished him for his improper behaviour, keeping him six months on bread and water, but Cyril only rejoiced at the chance of a stricter fast. When Theodore was made bishop at Rostov, in 1387 or 1388, Cyril was made archimandrite of the Simonov monastery. Soon, however, he realized that the rank required too much involvement in public affairs; he resigned, lived as a simple monk in a neighbouring monastery, and then resolved to go to a deserted place, to pray in peace. According to his life, one night, during the Akathist, he heard the voice of the Mother of God: “Cyril, go out of here and go to Beloozero. There I have prepared a place for you where you may be saved.”

He set out for Beloozero together with Therapont, another monk of Simonov. On the shore of Lake Siverskoe, at the place shown by the Mother of God, he dug a cave and remained in the labour of prayer. So, in 1397, the beginning was made of the monastery dedicated to the Most Pure Mother of God, later called Kirillo-⁠Belozersky. The harshness of the place unsettled Therapont, who moved away fifteen versts and founded his own monastery, on an open and beautiful hill, the Ferapontov monastery. The difference between the two did not spoil their warm relations. In solitude Cyril had temptations at first: once he nearly perished when a tree began to fall on him in his sleep, but he was saved by hearing in a dream a voice that woke him; another time, clearing a place for a garden, the brushwood he had lit caused a great fire. Soon two locals and three monks from Simonov joined him. Troubles also came from the world: a boyar, thinking that the former archimandrite had large sums, sent robbers to rob him, and a peasant, fearing that his land would be given to the monastery, tried to set fire to his cell.

Cyril established a very strict rule. The brothers were not allowed even to have their own drinking water in their cells. He himself was gentle with the brothers. With secular authorities he showed independence, but also gentleness. His life says that he avoided accepting estates from rulers of the world, yet documents signed by him are known concerning the acquisition of lands and villages: the ideal of owning no land lasted only in the first years of the monastery, for the community grew (at his death it had fifty-⁠three brothers) and required means. The monastery became the largest of northern Russia. Cyril fell asleep in the monastery in 1427, at ninety years of age. The Council of Makarios in 1547 numbered him among the saints. Several churches in Russia bear his name.