Nikephoros of Solovki

Holy Venerable Nikephoros of Solovki was a hermit of Novgorod origin, who died in the year 1605, on Palm Sunday.

He was the son of a Novgorod priest and came to the monastery while still young. He loved the monastic life and begged the abbot to tonsure him, but his youth and beauty led to the request being turned down; the refusal only increased his zeal. Once, through some travellers from Novgorod, he received a letter from his parents calling him home. He answered, "Tell my parents that they will not see me again in this life; we shall meet beyond the grave." He laboured for the monastery with the others, keeping a strict fast. He never lay down to sleep, but rested briefly sitting. In his free hours he liked to read the life of Saint Mark of Thrace, whose image as a hermit was deeply impressed on him and drew him to a hermit's life.

One day he sprang up from his seat before everyone, made the sign of the cross, laid aside his belt and sandals and, in a single grey tunic, ran into the forest. He spent twelve years in the wilderness of the island of Solovki in fasting, prayer and prostrations. Then a hermit tonsured him a monk. After three more years of monastic struggle he died in 1605, on Palm Sunday.

The page adds an account of hermits whose names are known only to God. A monk of Solovki, resting near a steep mountain, spoke the Jesus Prayer and heard "Amen" from a cleft in the rock. The unseen hermit told him that he lived on white moss ground with lingonberries, that he had been there at least ten years, that in the first year he was tormented by demons, and that two radiant elders brought him prosphora and strengthened him. The monk could not find him a second time.

Nikephoros is remembered on 11 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Novgorod, and on 22 August, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Solovki, in the new style.