Venerable Paul of Obnora

Venerable Paul of Obnora was born in Moscow in 1317. At 22 he was tonsured at the Nativity Monastery near Yaroslavl, then became a disciple and cell-companion of St. Sergius of Radonezh. With his teacher's blessing he spent fifteen years in desert solitude, three of them in complete silence, living in the hollow of an old linden tree in the Komel forest by the Gryazovitsa River. Wild birds, and even a bear, are said to have come to him without fear, taking food from his hands. He later settled on the Obnora River alongside his fellow ascetic St. Macarius Pisemsky, with whom he labored, and founded the Trinity Monastery there. He reposed at age 112 in 1429. His Life was composed around 1546; he was canonized at the Council of 1547.