Venerable
Blessed, Fool for Christ Andrew Of Totma
1638 — †1673
Blessed Andrew of Totma, Fool for Christ — born to a devout peasant family in the Ust-Tolshma parish near Totma; he took up the feat of foolishness at the Galich Resurrection Monastery, then settled by the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Totma, walking barefoot in rags year-round.
Blessed Andrew was born in 1638 to a devout peasant family in the Ust-Tolshma parish, 50 versts from the town of Totma. From his youth he was seized by the desire to serve God alone; leaving the world, he withdrew to the Galich Resurrection Monastery, where he took up the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake. Later settling by the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the town of Totma, he walked barefoot in rags year-round, eating only bread and water. For his ascetic life he was granted the gift of wonderworking from God: according to tradition, a blind man named Azhibokai, whom the blessed one refused to help for money, himself thought to wash his eyes with the snow on which the saint had stood, and immediately received his sight. He died in 1673. His memory is kept on October 10/23.
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