Venerable Alexander of Svir (+1533)

The Venerable Alexander of Svir (in the world Amos) was born on 15 June 1448 in the village of Mandera, on the bank of the Ojat, a tributary of the river Svir, on the day of the commemoration of the Prophet Amos, and was named in his honour. His future birth was miraculously announced to the blessed one’s parents by a heavenly voice: “Rejoice, good husband and wife; a son will be born to you, through whom the Lord will grant comfort to His Church.”

Amos was an obedient and humble child; he avoided laughter and foul language, loved prayer and fasted strictly. The saint knew that his parents meant to marry him, and so at nineteen he secretly left home and went to the monastery of Valaam.

In 1474 Amos became a monk with the name Alexander. Some years later his parents learned where their son was. Soon they themselves followed his example and ended their earthly lives in a monastery.

The report of the ascetic’s strict life spread far, and so in 1485 he left Valaam, settled in the forest at a sign from on high, and lived there in solitude for seven years.

In 1508 the venerable father was made worthy of an appearance of the Life-giving Trinity. Once, at night, as he stood in prayer in the desert, a strong light suddenly shone forth, and the saint saw three youths coming towards him, brighter than the sun, clothed in white garments. Each of them held a staff in his hand. The ascetic was seized with trembling, but when he came to himself he bowed down to the ground before his visitors. They raised him up and said to him: “Hope, O blessed one, and fear not!” The venerable father was commanded to build a church and found a monastery in the name of the Most Holy Trinity.

In the same year a wooden church was built in the name of the Life-giving Trinity (in 1526 a stone church was built in its place). As soon as the building was finished the brotherhood began to beg the blessed one to accept the priestly rank. For a long time he refused, considering himself unworthy. Then the monks asked Serapion, Archbishop of Novgorod (+1516), to persuade the Lord’s chosen one. In the same year the venerable father went to Novgorod and was ordained presbyter by the hierarch. Soon the brethren also persuaded Saint Alexander to accept the office of abbot.

Having taken up the heavy cross of headship, the blessed father became more humble than before. Once the monastery ran out of firewood. The steward asked the abbot to send the idle monks to prepare fuel. “I am idle,” said the saint, and went off to chop wood; the blessed one often ground the wheat with the hand-mill in place of others; at night he would go round the cells, and if he heard idle talk, he would knock gently and pass on.

In the evening of his life the Venerable Alexander decided to build a church dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God. When the foundations were laid, the spotless Virgin herself appeared to the holy ascetic, seated on a throne, with the Child in her arms, accompanied by angels, and said to him: “My beloved, whoever brings even a single brick for the building of my church, in the name of my Son and Lord Jesus Christ, shall not lose his reward”; and she promised her protection to the monastery.

The blessed Alexander of Svir lived eighty-five years, and on 30 August 1533 commended his soul to the Lord in peace.