Hilarion of Rossikon

Hilarion of Rossikon was a Russian schemamonk, for more than fifty years a monk at Jerusalem, then a hermit on Athos. He came to Athos in 1886 and reposed on a Sunday, 21 October, on his name day. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Born around 1811 in a family of townspeople, he concealed his past on Athos, holding that a monk dies to the world. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and stayed in a monastery there, where he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Hilarion. For over fifty years he lived at Jerusalem, amazing everyone by his austere life: he never tasted anything rich, not even oil, and fled alcoholic drink as from fire. At over seventy he learned from Athonite monks visiting Jerusalem that the Russian monastery had built a skete for hermits, and he decided to end his life there. He came in 1886 to New Thebaid, where he received the schema. He spent his last twelve years in a small hut half a verst east of Krumitsa, in strict seclusion: he received no one, did not open his door and only once a week went to the metochion to receive Communion. His rule was the great Compline, sixty knots of the prayer rope, then the schemamonk's rule of sixteen knots, and three hours of sleep. Past ninety, he did not relax his fast and did not take part in common meals. On a Sunday, his name day, he was found reposed, half sitting on his cot, with a serene face and his fingers ready for the sign of the cross.