Abraham of Paleostrov (; died ), also known as Avraamy Olonetsky, is an Eastern Orthodox saint, who was a

hegumen Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen (, trans. ), is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, or an archpriest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of ...

(

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

) of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paleostrov, Russia. Abraham was a disciple of Cornelius of Paleostrov and one of his successors as

of his monastery.

Life and ministration

From the ''Legend of the Life of the Reverend Cornelius of Paleostrov'', it is known that Abraham came to Cornelius after he had settled in a cave on the island of Paley on

Lake Onega Lake Onega (; also known as Onego; , ; ; Livvi-Karelian language, Livvi: ''Oniegujärvi''; ) is a lake in northwestern Russia, on the territory of the Republic of Karelia, Leningrad Oblast and Vologda Oblast. It belongs to the basin of the Baltic ...

. The Paleostrovsky Monastery was founded by Cornelius, presumably no later than 1415–1421. Abraham together with other disciples of Cornelius participated in the construction of the churches of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, of Elijah the Prophet and

Nicholas the Wonderworker Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya Province, Turkey) dur ...

, the caves for the monks. In the lifetime of Cornelius he appointed Abraham as his successor. The Reverend Cornelius died about 1420, Abraham buried him in the cave of the island of Paley. Later, the relics of Cornelius Paleostrovsky were transferred to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. The monk Abraham died in the middle of the 15th century. He was buried in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin near Cornelius.

Veneration

The date of the local canonization of Abraham Paleostrovsky is unknown. In the XVII century, the Palaeostrovsky Monastery was twice devastated, as a result of which most of the archive was lost. The local veneration of Abraham and Cornelius was documented at the beginning of the 19th century. Archbishop Sergius (Spassky) assigned the feast day of both saints - 21 August. In 1974, Abraham Paleostrovsky was included in the Synaxis of the

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

n Saints, and in 1981 - in the Synaxis of the

Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...

Saints.АВРААМИЙ ПАЛЕОСТРОВСКИЙ
Retrieved on 12 Mar 2018 His

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is celebrated on 21 August in the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

.Synaxis of All Saints of Karelia

References

External sources

* Корецкий В. И. Новгородские грамоты XV в. из архива Палеостровского монастыря (Novgorod letters of the XV century from the archive of the Paleostrovsky Monastery) // АЕ за 1957 г. Moscow, 1958. pp. 437–451. {{Authority control Year of birth missing 1460 deaths 15th-century Christian saints Russian abbots Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church