Of all Russian saints, Saint Sergius is perhaps the most inaccessible and mysterious. His life was so simple, so transparent that one can only observe it: he loved God from his childhood with simple and undivided love and throughout his life he was simple with an ever growing simplicity. This is true to such an extent that in the ultimate analysis the more one brings one's eyes to bear upon him the less one feels that there is anything one can say about him. More than any other Russian saint, he seems the most distant and developed in the most profound contemplative silence. Yet, he is surprisingly close to us.



In the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran calendars, 25 September is the memorial of that athlete of virtue and asceticism, the holy monk Saint Sergius of Radonezh.