Panteleimon Kurbatov

Panteleimon Kurbatov was a Russian hieroschemamonk of St Panteleimon Monastery, born in 1839 at Kazan. He reposed on 12 March 1911, after fifty-⁠two years of labour in the monastery. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Pyotr Kurbatov in the world, he was the son of a teacher, a provincial secretary, Michael Onisimovich, and of Alexandra. After the Kazan military school he served three years in the commissariat department. At nineteen he decided to leave the world with its deceptions and give his youth to God's service. To test his resolve he went to Valaam, to the abbot Damascene, but did not stay long: the other Athos was calling him, the ancient centre of Orthodox monasticism. With the abbot's blessing he went to Jerusalem and then to Athos, to St Panteleimon, where he lived in obedience for 52 years. In old age he found in thinking of God and in prayer his only consolation and wished for no more: undistracted, he said, he could be with the God of love unceasingly, and this is the highest reward. He died peacefully on 12 March 1911.