Elisha of Lavrishev

Venerable Elisha of Lavrishev was the founder and first abbot of the Lavrishev Monastery near Novogrudok in Belarus, one of the oldest monasteries of the region. He was killed by a possessed servant and was glorified among the saints in 1514. He is commemorated on 23 October (5 November).

Life

Few certain things are preserved. An old life in Slavonic, now lost, was briefly retold in an edition of 1650. According to it, Elisha was perhaps the son of the Lithuanian prince Troiden, grand prince of Lithuania from 1270 to 1282. In the nineteenth century the father was named Troinat, grand prince in 1263-1264, an inaccuracy still met today. It must be said that the chronology does not fit: his death, according to tradition around 1250, comes earlier than Troiden's reign. The Bykhovets Chronicle, written between 1550 and 1570, says that Troiden had by a daughter of the prince of Mazovia a son named Rimont, who was sent to study with Lev Mstislavich, where he came to know the Christian faith, was baptized, left the world and became a monk with the name Lavr. Some scholars think his pagan name was Rolmunt (Rimont).

Elisha held a high post at the court of the grand prince of Lithuania, probably Mindaugas. At that time the inhabitants of Lithuania and part of present-⁠day Belarus were pagan. From youth he disliked the bustle of everyday life. After receiving holy baptism he left the court and withdrew to a deserted place in a bend of the left bank of the Neman. There an Orthodox monk, who according to tradition was named Gregory, found him, and with him, around 1225, he founded a monastery dedicated to the Mother of God. The news spread to the surroundings, and the brethren multiplied. For three years Prince Voishelk, son of Mindaugas, lived there; he then left on pilgrimage to Athos, returned from Bulgaria, where there was war, and founded a monastery of his own, also on the Neman. Elisha was chosen abbot.

Martyrdom and glorification

In troubled and bloody times, Abbot Elisha was killed by a young possessed servant whom he looked after, on the night of 23 October, around 1250. His relics became known for miracles and helped above all those tormented by evil spirits. Even the possessed servant was healed by touching the relics.

Around 1505 the Crimean Tatars again raided the lands of Belarus, laid waste many settlements, including the surroundings of Novogrudok, and approached the Lavrishev Monastery. It seemed to the Tatars that the monastery courtyard was full of picked horsemen ready for battle, and they fled in terror. Perhaps this event was the reason for the glorification, performed in 1514 by Metropolitan Joseph II Soltan at the Council of Vilnius. His relics, which had earlier rested open, were hidden in the ground during one of the wars and, after the monastery burned in the First World War, were not found again. Today the oldest monastery in Belarus, called the Saint Elisha Lavrishev Monastery, is being restored.