Innocent of Komel

Venerable Innocent of Komel (of the Okhlyabinin family, died 1491 or, by other data, 1521) was a disciple of Venerable Nilus of Sora, founder of the Transfiguration monastery at Komel, in the Vologda land, and author of a "Testament" to the brothers. He was born in Moscow and was a monk at Kirillo-⁠Belozersk. He travelled with Nilus to the Holy Places, to Constantinople and to Athos, and then withdrew into the wilderness, after the pattern of the skete. He is commemorated on 19 March.

His life

Venerable Innocent was born in Moscow, of the family of the princes Okhlyabinin, who descended from the princes Ukhorsky of Yaroslavl. He seems to have been the son of the founder of the family, Fyodor Okhlyaba. He is often identified with Ivan Fyodorovich Okhlyabinin, mentioned in the rank book of 1515, but that is an anachronism. The year of his birth is unknown. Two redactions of his life are known, but their reliability remains in question. The older life, which probably contained more reliable news of the venerable one, burned when the monastery was destroyed by the Kazan Tatars in 1538. Innocent is mentioned in the life of Venerable Nilus of Sora, and this information differs greatly from that in the known life of Innocent.

Judging by all, Innocent was tonsured a monk at the Kirillo-⁠Belozersk monastery. (His life says he was tonsured in the skete of Venerable Nilus, which is impossible.) The year of tonsure is unknown. It is known for certain that he was the closest disciple of Venerable Nilus of Sora (died 1508) and made with him, between 1475 and 1485, a journey to Palestine, Constantinople and Athos, as the life of Nilus reports. After returning from the long pilgrimage, Nilus and Innocent settled outside the Belozersk monastery, then, seeking a more solitary place little frequented by people of the world, they found fifteen versts from the monastery, on the river Sora, a place suitable for a skete. Here, setting up a cross, they raised two cells. So began the Nilo-⁠Sorsk Hermitage.

The skete at Komel

After some time Innocent left his teacher and founded his skete in the Vologda district, on the river Eda, a tributary of the Nurma. In a note on the life of Nilus, blessing him, Nilus says to his disciple: your monastery will be a community one, and my hermitage, in my lifetime and after my death, will be such that each brother lives in a cell of his own. So Nilus blessed his disciple to found a community monastery. But from the "Testament" written by Innocent shortly before his death it follows that it was nevertheless a skete, like that at Sora. Only later did Innocent's skete turn into a coenobium, the community monastery of the Transfiguration at Komel.

Wishing to leave his instructions to the brothers, shortly before his death Venerable Innocent wrote his "Testament", in which he insists on holding to the tradition of "my lord and teacher, the elder Nilus". The Testament has a preface and sections "On the church", "On the cells" and "On the self-⁠willed". In the section on the church the venerable one asks that the church be dedicated to Saint John the Forerunner, at the third finding of his head, for John is teacher to all monks and hermits. It seems that in Innocent's lifetime there was no church in the skete. The section on cells touches the "legal" side of the property relations of the inhabitants. The cells remain in the possession of the skete's brotherhood and the abbot disposes of them. Trade and exchange of cells are forbidden. The self-⁠willed are to be punished, and if punishment does not help, expelled. Whoever repents may be received back. We also know a short note of his, "That it is good to write holy books", in which he gives three reasons for copying holy books: the need to be fed by one's own labour, the removal of idleness and "converse with God". From this it follows that he busied himself with copying books, but manuscripts made by his hand have not yet been identified. G. M. Prokhorov supposes that the well-⁠known "Foreword" and "Addition" to the "Tradition" and "Rule" of Nilus of Sora, and the work "On the Inner Work", are also his. But no early copies of these texts have been found, and traditionally they are held to be by the hand of an eighteenth-⁠century saint, Basil of Polyanomerul.

Repose and veneration

Venerable Innocent fell asleep on 19 March 1491. According to the testament he was buried in a corner of the monastery, near the swamp. A stone was laid on his grave on which the year, month and day of repose are written (19 March 6999). Although the date of death is stated exactly, doubts are expressed about it. In the Oten Calendar (compiled at the start of the eighteenth century) the year of repose is 1521. Since, according to his life, he died after his teacher (died 1508), the date in the calendar may be regarded as correct (I. Veryuzhsky). The year 6999 is in the first redaction of the life. The second, evidently wrongly, gives 6909 (1401).

Veneration of Venerable Innocent seems to have begun soon after his repose. At least by 1538, when the monastery was destroyed by the Tatars, the monastery already had an icon and a life of the saint. The troparion and kontakion are known from the seventeenth century. His commemoration on 19 March is indicated in the "Description of the Russian Saints" (copies from the end of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). Besides 19 March, Venerable Innocent is commemorated in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda, on the third Sunday after Pentecost, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Novgorod, on the second Sunday after Pentecost, and in the Synaxis of the Athonite Venerable Fathers.