Venerable Serapion of Pskov, Spaso-Eleazarov

Venerable Serapion of Pskov was born in the late 14th century in the city of Yuryev (Dorpat, present-day Tartu), then under German knightly rule that sought to suppress Orthodoxy. To escape forced conversion, he left his native city for the Pskov lands, where he was tonsured at the Spaso-Eleazarov Monastery founded by St. Euphrosynus of Pskov. Under his elder's guidance he learned obedience, prayer, and desert silence, keeping it for decades. Serapion is venerated as one of St. Euphrosynus's closest disciples and a continuer of the communal rule he established. He reposed as an elder on September 8, 1480 — the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos — and was buried beside his teacher.