Roman of Kirzhach

Venerable Roman of Kirzhach was a monk, a disciple of Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, with whom he founded the Annunciation monastery at Kirzhach. He died on 29 July 1392, at Kirzhach. His commemoration is on 29 July by the old calendar (11 August by the new); the record gives 23 June, which the sources do not support.

Nothing is known about his origin. The disagreements that arose at the Radonezh monastery, because part of the brotherhood did not want Venerable Sergius as abbot, made the saint withdraw together with Roman into the Pokrovsk forests. Here they laid the foundation of the Annunciation monastery at Kirzhach, according to the Ukrainian source in 1371, by building a church in the name of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God. Returning then to the monastery, at the request of Metropolitan Alexis and the other part of the brotherhood, Venerable Sergius entrusted Venerable Roman with completing the building of the new monastery. Roman organised the monastery, was its first abbot and served the brethren as an example of ascetic life.

According to the Ukrainian source, he was ordained by Saint Alexis the hierarch and, in handwritten calendars of saints, is listed among the saints and called a wonderworker. His relics lay under a slab in the Annunciation church of the Kirzhach monastery, which later became the cathedral church of the town of Kirzhach. In 1997 the holy relics of Venerable Roman of Kirzhach were found and a crypt church was consecrated, in the basement of the Annunciation cathedral, in his name.