Nifont Krasnov

Nifont Krasnov was a Russian hieroschemamonk, born in the Don Host region (according to other data, in Voronezh province), tonsured on Athos and the founder of a cenobitic life at a cell on the land of Hilandar Monastery. He reposed on 1 June 1920 and is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Pavel Vasilievich Krasnov in the world, he entered a monastery in Russia as a novice at ten and was a cell attendant of an archimandrite. After six years he fell gravely ill, lay two years in bed close to death, and vowed that if he recovered he would go to Jerusalem, to the Holy Sepulchre, and then to Athos. He recovered, and after the death of his abbot the road to Athos opened to him. On 30 October 1872 he entered the Skete of St Elias, and with the blessing of Father Hieronymus he moved to Karoulia as a novice to a severe elder. He made cypress crosses and made exhausting barefoot journeys for provisions to St Panteleimon Monastery. Troubled that he had not fulfilled his vow, he worked three months as a copyist, saved eight hundred piastres and went to Jerusalem. On his return his elder had died.

He then entered the cell of St Nicholas of Iviron Monastery, and in 1881 he was ordained deacon and the next day, 3 August, hieromonk. The elder of the cell, the schemamonk Nicholas, saw his gifts and sent him to restore a long-⁠abandoned skete of Hilandar Monastery. On 30 July 1883 he moved to the skete of the Holy Trinity, a rocky place without sufficient water. Soon a brotherhood gathered around him, joined by the monk Gennady and by Athanasios, who had spent forty-⁠three years on Athos. Nifont established a strict cenobitic rule in the skete, setting the example himself at services and obediences, and began building works, among them a church in thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Tsarevich at Otsu in Japan. The brethren loved him as a father.