Paul of Taganrog

Saint Paul of Taganrog the Righteous (in the world Pavel Pavlovich Stozhkov, 1792 to 1879) was a Russian pilgrim and ascetic, of noble birth, who lived more than forty years in the city of Taganrog, on the shore of the Sea of Azov, in a simple cell, in prayer, fasting and receiving people. He was neither monk nor priest. The Russian Church canonized him as a locally venerated saint in 1999, and in 2016 for veneration throughout the Church. He is commemorated on 10 March (old style) and on 7 June.

Childhood and wanderings

He was born on 8 (21) November 1792, in the Krolevets district, in the viceroyalty of Novgorod-⁠Seversky (today in Ukraine), into a noble and rich family. His parents, the collegiate registrar Pavel and Paraskeva, were deeply religious people who instilled in him faith in God and piety. At baptism he received the name Paul, in honour of Saint Paul the Confessor. From youth he had a love for holy places and pilgrimage. He told of himself that all his desire was to pray to God and his intention was to go on pilgrimage for the salvation of his soul, because the life around him was full of worldly vanity and hindered his holy wish. His father would not let him become a cleric, wishing to give him a higher education. Instead, Paul secretly left his parents' house and went about monasteries for a year.

At twenty-⁠five his father decided to divide the property between him and his elder brother Ivan. According to the Russian source he received the share due to him, lands and about three hundred souls of serfs. Paul freed his peasants, distributed the property in Christ's name, his father blessed him and Paul left home to become an ascetic. He went about holy places, among them the Kyiv Caves Lavra and the Pochaev Lavra. He also liked to go to the north of Russia and visited Solovki, Verkola, Kozheozero and many other monasteries. He made several journeys of 3,000 versts on foot to Solovki.

At Taganrog

After about ten years of pilgrimage Paul settled at Taganrog, in the years 1825 to 1830. Taganrog became his second home city. At first he lived in rented lodgings: for a time at Kasperovka, then in the fortress, then some twenty years on Banny Spusk, with the widow Elena Baeva. At last he moved into a house on Depaldo Street (now Turgenevsky Lane), not far from the church of Saint Nicholas. The house exists today and is known to locals as the "cell of Elder Paul". There he lived until old age, and there he fell asleep in March 1879.

Although not in orders, he in fact led a strict monastic life in a bustling town. He kept a constant fast and gave himself to ceaseless prayer. In old age he reportedly drank only a cup of kvass with a soaked rusk a day. He slept usually on a bare bench without a pillow. He wore plain peasant clothes and spoke the simple Little Russian speech. He told no one of his noble birth. He went to church every day, stood through all the services and kept all-⁠night vigils. He received as novices old men and youths, widows and maidens, and kept them very strictly, accustoming them to fasting and prayer. His greatest delight was prayer: in his cell akathists to the Saviour and the Mother of God were read every day and night, and the akathist to the Mother of God of Kazan was especially loved. Many knew him, visited him and brought him offerings. While his health allowed, he continued to go to holy places.

In the last five years of his life he ate and slept little and no longer went out of his house. He fell asleep on 10 March 1879 (23 March new style), during Great Lent, aged 78. A Ukrainian source gives the date as 20 March.

Glorification

The question of canonization was raised shortly before the revolution of 1917. On 20 June 1999, at Taganrog, the canonization of blessed Paul and the transfer of his relics from the small chapel in the old cemetery to the church of Saint Nicholas took place. The Life reports that during the glorification, in the middle of the Liturgy, around the sun, standing at its zenith in the cloudless sky above the church, a round rainbow appeared. Many reported seeing an unusual aureole over the church.

On 20 June 2014 Metropolitan Mercury (Ivanov) led celebrations at Taganrog for the fifteenth anniversary of the glorification of Saint Paul among the locally venerated saints of the Rostov diocese. By decision of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Church of 2 to 3 February 2016 the glorification of the Righteous Paul throughout the Church was carried out, and on 11 June 2016 Metropolitan Mercury led the celebrations. On 16 April 2016 the Holy Synod approved the text of the troparion, kontakion and prayer, and in 2018 a new redaction of the akathist.

His cell is a place of pilgrimage for the people of Taganrog, of other regions and of Ukraine. A chapel of Saint Paul has been opened at the old cemetery, where he was buried. The relics are in the church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker (built in 1777 or 1778 on the site of Peter I's camp, where he first landed at Cape Taganrog). In the settlement of Matveev Kurgan, 40 kilometres from Taganrog, stands the only church-⁠monument in Russia of Saint Paul of Taganrog, which immortalizes not only his glory but the fight of the Red Army units who in the World War defended the land of the northern Azov.