Hilarion of Troekurovo

Venerable Hilarion of Troekurovo (in the world Hilarion Methodievich Fomin, in monasticism, secretly, Hilary) was a hermit and recluse of the Russian Church, born to a peasant family and died on 5 April 1853. He is known mostly as Father Hilarion, although he was tonsured in secret with the name Hilary. Our data give his commemoration on 10 June.

Youth and flight

Our sources do not agree on the year of his birth: one says 1758, another 1774. He was born in the village of Zenkino, in the Ranenburg district, into a peasant family. From youth he showed an inclination to silence, prayer and abstinence. His parents did not like these tendencies and, in 1777, had him married, but he fled from his parents' house on the very day of the wedding, to Kyiv. Later he returned to his homeland and lived in the village of Golovinshchina, with a priest, from whom he learned to read, then settled some four versts from the village, in the so-⁠called Oxen Ravine, in a cave dug by himself.

Years of wandering

After six years he was driven out of the Oxen Ravine and from then began the forty years of wandering from village to village. He thought of settling at the Dmitriev monastery in Skopin, at the Peter and Paul hermitage at Ranenburg, at the Korennaya hermitage in the Kursk province, where he received secret tonsure with the name Hilary. Everywhere he was pursued, now because of the denunciations of the monastic brotherhood, now because of the intrigues of his wife, and he was arrested several times. Only in 1824 did Father Hilarion settle quietly in the village of Troekurovo, Lebedyan district, Tambov province, and there he struggled in seclusion more than thirty years.

Disciples and the end

His virtuous and laborious life gathered admirers and followers everywhere, even though he sought to remain unknown. At Troekurovo, widows and maidens formed a whole community, at whose head Father Hilarion stood. With the money collected he bought land in the village of Mogilki and obtained the right to found a women's community at Troekurovo, but did not live to see it fully established: the Hilarion women's community was opened in 1857. Six years before his death he lost his sight and he died on 5 April 1853. Our sources do not give the date of canonization, although they call him venerable.