Venerable
Venerable Innocent of Komel
сер. XV века — ок. 1491(?)/1521
Also known as: Иннокентий Охлябинин
Venerable Innocent of Komel — a monk tonsured at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and the closest companion of Venerable Nil Sorsky on his travels to Constantinople, Palestine, and Mount Athos, co-founder of the Sora Hermitage, and around 1491 the founder of his own hermitage on the Eda River in the Komel forest near Vologda; author of a monastic Testament in the non-possessor tradition.
Venerable Innocent came from the Okhlyabinin family (of Moscow princely-boyar origin). He was tonsured a monk at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery under the guidance of Venerable Nil Sorsky. Together with him he made a pilgrimage to Constantinople, the Holy Land, and Mount Athos (variously dated between 1475 and 1489), after which they settled in a skete on the Sora River, 15 versts from the Kirillov monastery, living "in the manner of skete hermits" — the beginning of the Russian non-possessor tradition.
Around 1491, with the blessing (according to tradition, the prophetic direction) of Venerable Nil, Innocent left the Sora skete and founded his own hermitage on the Eda River, in the upper reaches of the Nurma, about 50 km southeast of Vologda, in the Komel forest — the Nikolo-Innokentiev (Spaso-Nikolaevskaya Innokentievskaya) hermitage.
He composed for his community a monastic "Testament" (Rule), drawing on the teaching of Nil Sorsky and patristic tradition, emphasizing "love in Christ and spiritual peace," and prohibiting the tonsure of beardless youths and women in the monastery.
IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION ON THE DATE OF DEATH: the exact time of Venerable Innocent's repose remains unclear. According to the Orthodox Encyclopedia, "the question of the time of I.'s death remains unclear," giving a range of "mid-15th c. — 19.03.1491(?)" with a question mark; other sources (e.g. Drevo-info) date the founding of the hermitage to 1491 and the death to 1521. The dating is left uncertain, in the range 1491–1521, without asserting a single date.
IMPORTANT CONTAMINATION CORRECTION: the original stub carried the exact same set of commemoration dates (March 31/September 23/October 10) as the stub of an entirely different saint — St. Innocent (Veniaminov) of Moscow (see the separate entry innocent_moscow); these dates belong exclusively to the Metropolitan of Moscow and have nothing to do with Venerable Innocent of Komel. His only genuine feast day is March 19/April 1, the feast of Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria, on which he is also commemorated in the Synaxis of Vologda Saints, the Synaxis of Novgorod Saints, and the Synaxis of Mount Athos ascetics.