Venerable Nilus of Stolobny (Seliger)

Orphaned young, Venerable Nilus took monastic tonsure around 1505 at the Krypetsky Monastery near Pskov (in the tradition of St. Sava of Krypetsky). Around 1515 he withdrew to a hermitage on the Seremkha River, where for 13 years he lived an extremely strict solitary hermit's life in the forest, subsisting on what the forest provided, in continual spiritual struggle. As his solitude began drawing disciples and visitors seeking counsel, he prayed for guidance and, tradition holds, heard a voice directing him to Stolobny Island on Lake Seliger.

In 1528 he settled on Stolobny Island, building a small cell and chapel, enduring attacks by robbers and arson attempts on his dwelling. He took up his signature ascetic feat: for the last 27 years of his life he never lay down to sleep, resting instead by leaning on wooden hooks driven into the wall of his cell. Tradition holds he dug his own grave in advance of his death. He died December 7, 1554 (other sources say 1555).

Decades after his death (local veneration began around 1595, with the creation of his first icon), Nilova Pustyn Monastery was founded on the island, becoming one of the most visited pilgrimage sites of pre-revolutionary Russia; his relics, later found incorrupt, now rest at Nilova Pustyn (Ostashkov, Tver region).

His feast is kept on December 7/20 (repose); also May 27/June 9 (founding of the hermitage/finding of relics).