Hilarion of Gdov

Venerable Hilarion of Gdov is a Russian saint of the fifteenth century, a disciple of Venerable Euphrosynus of Pskov. He founded the monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God at Ozerski, near Gdov, and was its first abbot. He departed to the Lord on 28 March 1476, and the Church commemorates him on the day of his repose, 28 March, and on 21 October, the feast of the saints who bear his name (old calendar).

Hilarion was a disciple of Venerable Euphrosynus, founder of the Three Hierarchs monastery of Eleazar. As first abbot he founded the monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God at Ozerski, near Gdov, on the bank of the river Zhelcha, which flows into Lake Peipus.

Despite the close neighbourhood of the Livonian Order, the monastery founded by Venerable Hilarion quickly became a significant religious centre. Through the saint's labours Orthodoxy spread among the Estonians. After giving much effort to the arrangement and growth of the monastery, Venerable Hilarion reposed on 28 March 1476 and was buried by the north door of the altar in the church of the Protection of the Mother of God of the monastery he founded.

In 1623 the Saviour-⁠Eleazar monastery was still independent, and in 1695 it was attached to the archbishop's house of Pskov.