Quiz on Saints’ Lives

Initially, having taken monastic tonsure, the Monk Sergius led a solitary hermit life. Monks flocked to the holy hermit in a remote hermitage, and so a monastery arose here, which is now called Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Sergius becomes the hegumen of the monastery. Translated from Greek this word means ‘leading’. The hegumen of a monastery, ideally, should be much more than just a leader. Rather, he should be something like a father to the monks. Loving, caring, subtle, attentive one, an example in everything. In real life, however, not everyone can achieve such an ideal result. Venerable Sergius of Radonezh was such a hegumen, and he was a father, and not only for the monks of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery founded by him, but for the whole Russian land. He was a man of the highest spiritual qualities and extraordinary modesty. It was him who became the force that united the disparate principalities and which mobilised the whole nation to defend its Fatherland.