Venerable Euphrosynus of Pskov

Saint Euphrosynus of Pskov (born Eleazar, c. 1386) came from a pious peasant family near Pskov. Refusing an arranged marriage, he secretly entered the Snetogorsky Monastery. Around 1425 he withdrew to a hermit's cell on the Tolva River; disciples gathered around him, giving rise to the Spaso-Eleazarov Monastery. He composed one of the oldest communal monastic rules in Rus', drawing on St. Basil the Great and St. John Climacus. Between 1419 and 1425 he traveled to Constantinople, where the Patriarch and Athonite elders blessed the double (rather than triple) chanting of "Alleluia," making him central to the famous 15th-century Pskov Alleluia controversy. Out of humility he never accepted priestly ordination, entrusting leadership to his disciple Ignatius. He died on May 15, 1481, at ninety-five, and was glorified at the Councils of 1549 and 1551.