Righteous Paul of Taganrog

CATEGORY REFINEMENT: the saint's official (canonical) rank is "righteous," not simply "blessed" as the stub stated; in popular veneration and some sources he is indeed called a "blessed elder," but this is a colloquial, not formal, designation.

Righteous Paul of Taganrog (secular name Pavel Pavlovich Stozhkov) was born on 8 (19) November 1792 into a noble family in the Krolevets district of Chernihiv province. Around age 25, following the Gospel command, he freed his serfs and distributed his share of the estate to the poor, then set out on a pilgrimage to Russian monasteries, including Solovki, the Kiev Caves Lavra, and Pochaev Lavra.

In the 1820s–1830s he settled in Taganrog, living ascetically — laboring at the port, cutting wood, and eventually occupying a cell near St. Nicholas Church, around which a community of pious women following a monastic rule gathered. Gifted with clairvoyance and healing, Elder Paul received throngs of the suffering, gave counsel, and foretold the future — reportedly predicting that his spiritual father, Hieromonk Damian, would become Patriarch of Jerusalem.

He reposed on 10 (23) March 1879 in Taganrog after receiving Holy Communion. Veneration continued unbroken; his relics were uncovered in 1998. He was locally glorified by the Rostov diocese on 20 June 1999, and on 2–3 February 2016 the Bishops' Council of the ROC glorified him for general church veneration in the rank of the righteous. His relics rest in St. Nicholas Church, Taganrog.