Venerable Sevastian of Sokhotsk, Poshekhonye

Venerable Sevastian of Sokhotsk, Poshekhonye, was a Russian monastic ascetic of the second half of the 15th century, founder of the Transfiguration (Spaso-Preobrazhensky) Monastery on the Sokhotka River amid the Poshekhonye forests, about 90 versts from the town of Romanov (present-day Tutaev, Yaroslavl Region). Little is known of his origin or monastic tonsure. Withdrawing into the wilderness on the banks of the Sokhotka for solitary prayer, he built a church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Other monks soon gathered around him, forming a community for which he established a strict cenobitic rule, teaching the brethren by his own example of manual labor — carrying water, chopping wood, grinding grain, baking bread, spinning wool, and braiding rope. He reposed around 1492; his relics rest under the altar at the site of the monastery he founded. His feast is kept on December 18 (Old Style) / December 31 (New Style), with an additional commemoration on February 26/March 11 and within the Synaxis of Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints.