Venerable
Venerable Alexander of Oshevensk
1427–1479
Founder of the Oshevensky Monastery in the Kargopol region, tonsured at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, an adherent of the hesychast tradition of silence.
Venerable Alexander of Oshevensk was born in 1427. At nineteen he received monastic tonsure at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery with the name Alexander. Loving silence and the mental (Jesus) prayer in the hesychast tradition, he withdrew to the Kargopol region, to the Churyuga River, where he founded a monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, later named Oshevensky after a nearby settlement. Through strict abstinence, labor, and prayer, the venerable one gathered brethren around him and established a communal rule in the monastery. He died in 1479. He is venerated in the Synaxis of Karelian Saints and the Synaxis of Novgorod Saints.