Isaakios the Silent

Holy Venerable Isaakios the Silent was one of the first disciples of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and passed to the Lord in the winter of 1388, at the Holy Trinity monastery. He is commemorated on 19 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh, and on 5 September (a movable day), in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in new style.

The chronicler says of him that he was distinguished by freedom from malice, by unusual gentleness and obedience, that he loved to read Holy Scripture and that, subduing his body with strict fasting, he received the gift of tears. Venerable Epiphanius, in the Life of Sergius, says that Isaakios was a very virtuous man, who struggled in great abstinence, wearing down his body with fasting, vigil and prayer.

Venerable Sergius intended to make him builder of the monastery on the Kirzhach, but the lover of stillness asked the elder to bless him for the struggle of silence. When Sergius blessed him, Isaakios saw, according to the biographer, a great flame come out of the saint's hand and surround him. Once he was granted to see an angel serving together with the abbot of the Trinity. The venerable one was serving the Liturgy with his brother Stephen and his nephew Theodore, but Isaakios, standing in the church, saw not three celebrants but four. The fourth was a wonderful man, of indescribable radiance, in vestments of unusual brilliance. Puzzled, he turned to another disciple of Sergius, Macarius, who also had the vision and supposed that the fourth was the priest of Prince Vladimir Andreevich, who was then in the monastery. They inquired among the prince's retinue and learned that he had no priest with him. After the service they went to the abbot and received his confession, on condition that they keep the secret until his death: the fourth in the altar was an angel of God, who served with the old man at every Liturgy. Later Sergius told Isaakios also of the visit of the Mother of God.

In the inventory of the monastery made in 1641, two manuscripts written by the ascetic's own hand are mentioned. Probably one of his obediences in the monastery was copying books. He fell asleep in the winter of 1388, three years before the death of his blessed teacher, and was buried east of the Trinity cathedral.