Sergius of Radonezh and the Trinity Monastery

What is known of Sergius comes almost wholly from his Life. Its editors explain that Epiphanius the Wise, a monk of his monastery, wrote it in 1417–1418, twenty-six years after Sergius died, and that it survives in a revision made a generation later by Pachomius the Serb (Life of Sergius of Radonezh editors’ introduction). It is a saint’s life, and what follows is its account.

The Life says that Sergius of Radonezh was born to Cyril, a boyar of the Rostov region, and his wife Maria, and was baptized Bartholomew (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 2) (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 5). Tatar raids and tributes, and then the harsh rule of Moscow’s officers in Rostov, ruined the family, which moved to the village of Radonezh. When his parents had died, Bartholomew persuaded his elder brother Stephen, already a monk, to seek a solitary place with him. Deep in the forest, by a spring, they built a hut, a cell and a small wooden church, and had it consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity with the blessing of Metropolitan Theognostus. Stephen found the life too hard and left for a monastery in Moscow (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 5).

Bartholomew stayed alone. An abbot named Mitrofan tonsured him on 7 October, the feast of the martyrs Sergius and Bacchus, and gave him the name Sergius. He was twenty-three. The Life tells of his solitude among wolves and bears (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 6). Then others came to live near him, at first no more than twelve. At their urging he was ordained priest and made abbot by Bishop Athanasius at Pereyaslavl (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 7).

Envoys later brought a cross and a letter from Patriarch Philotheos of Constantinople, who advised him to establish the common life. With the agreement of Metropolitan Alexis, Sergius did so: he assigned the monks their duties and ordered that no one call anything his own (Life of Sergius of Radonezh chs. 15–16).

The Life reports that Grand Prince Dmitry came for his blessing before marching against the Tatar ruler Mamai, and that Sergius foretold the victory (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 22). It says that Metropolitan Alexis wished to make him his successor and that Sergius refused (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 25). He died on 25 September 1392 (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 32).

The Life says that he founded many other monasteries besides his own, and it names several begun by his disciples (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 7) (Life of Sergius of Radonezh chs. 17, 19–20). His own house, at what is now Sergiyev Posad, became the Trinity-Sergius Lavra; the editors of the Life give 1452 as the year of his canonization (Life of Sergius of Radonezh editors’ introduction).

How this is dated

Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.

The Life gives no year for the founding, and its own indications do not agree. It says the church of the Trinity was consecrated under Grand Prince Simeon Ivanovich, and its author adds that he thinks this was at the beginning of the reign (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 5); the editors’ note gives his reign as 1340–1353. It says Sergius was twenty-three when he was tonsured there (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 6) and seventy-eight when he died in the year 6900, that is 1392 (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 32). Counting back from the death gives a birth in 1314 and a tonsure about 1337, the year kept here from the outline.

But the Life also places his birth at the coming of the host of Akhmyl (Life of Sergius of Radonezh ch. 2), which the editors date to 1322; that gives a tonsure about 1345 and fits the reign of Simeon. The editors remark that the age of seventy-eight “raises doubts”. The founding therefore falls between about 1337 and 1345, with the later years better supported by the Life’s references to rulers.

Sergius of Radonezh and the Trinity Monastery

How this is dated

Primary sources

Life of Sergius of Radonezh

In context

Grows out of

Leads to

Along the threads