Paul of Obnora

Venerable Paul of Obnora (also called of Komel, 1317 to 10 January 1429) was a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and founder of the Pavlo-⁠Obnorsk monastery. He is commemorated on 10 January (Old Style). He was canonized for veneration in the whole Church at the Council of Macarius of 1547. The Russian source gives his age as a hundred and twelve; so long a life is only by tradition.

Life

He was born in 1317 in Moscow and from childhood was inclined to monasticism. At twenty-⁠two, when his parents wished to marry him, he left home and received tonsure at the Nativity monastery on the Volga. Later he moved to the monastery of the Holy Trinity and became a disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. After obedience in Sergius's cell he shut himself in for fifteen years, and when he came out he received from him a blessing "to go away into the desert".

Seeking a place of solitude, he visited various deserts, was at Abraham of Chukhloma, at the Feodorovsky monastery in Gorodets and in other places. After wandering he stopped in the Komel forest, today in the south of the Vologda region, near the river Komela, where for three years he lived in the hollow of a lime tree by the river Gryazovitsa, then moved in the same forest to the river Nurma, a tributary of the Obnora, and made himself a cell and a well. His dwelling became known and those who wished to be his disciples began to come. Having the blessing of Saint Sergius to found a new monastery, with a visible sign, a forged copper cross, hearing the sound of bells and seeing a light brighter than the sun, at the age of ninety-⁠seven he went to Moscow, told Metropolitan Photius of his night vision and asked a blessing for the monastery. In 1414, with the blessing of Sergius of Nurma and Metropolitan Photius, he built the church of the Holy Trinity, around which arose the Pavlo-⁠Obnorsk monastery. For the monastery he set a strict cenobitic rule, entrusting its leadership to his disciple Alexis, ordained abbot, while he remained in a solitary cell near the monastery. He often visited the nearby Spaso-⁠Nurma monastery, where he spoke with Saint Sergius of Nurma.

Repose and relics

He reposed on 10 January 1429, at a hundred and twelve, according to the source. His Life was written around 1546, and at the Council of Macarius of 1547 he was canonized for veneration in the whole Church. The relics have not been found and were kept under a stone in the church of Saint Sergius of Radonezh of his monastery. In 1878 a massive silver shrine, the work of Sergei Verkhovtsev, was set over them. On 26 September 1920 the shrine was opened by the Bolsheviks, who found only boards and rubbish. Today the relics are still under a stone in the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Pavlo-⁠Obnorsk, and a wooden chapel has been built over them.