Saint Innocent of Komél and Vologda disciple of Saint Nilus of Sora

Saint Innocent of Komél and Vologda was born in Moscow, and was descended from the Moscow princely family of Okhlyabinin. He became a monk in the Monastery of Saint Cyril of White Lake (June 9), where he was placed under the guidance of Saint Nilus of Sora (May 7).

Saints Innocent and Nilus wandered throughout the East visiting Palestine, Constantinople, and spent several years in the monasteries of Mount Athos. After returning to Rus, the Saints did not return to Saint Cyril of White Lake Monastery, but to solitary cells for monastic seclusion. Seeking a life of solitude, they withdrew into the impassable forest at the Sora River, some fifteen versts from the Monastery. There they set up a cross, dug a well, and built separate cells, after the manner of the skete monasteries. A church was built on a marshy spot, and there the hermits led strict ascetical lives.

Foreseeing his own demise, Saint Nilus sent Saint Innocent to the Nurma River and revealed to him: “God is sending you there, and yours shall be a cenobitic monastery. After my death, my wilderness monastery will remain as it was during my life, with the brothers living separately, each in his own cell.”

After the repose of Saint Nilus, his holy disciple withdrew into the Vologda hinterland and in 1491 he built a cell at the Eda River, which flows into the Nurma. In a short while, disciples began to gather around him. Obeying the last command of his teacher, Saint Innocent did not seek any donations for it.

Saint Innocent labored for thirty years at building his monastery. He left behind instructions for the brethren, based on the works of the Holy Fathers, particularly the writings of Saint Nilus of Sora. Saint Innocent urged them to avoid wrangling and disputes, asking them to preserve love for Christ and spiritual peace.

The Saint forbade young and beardless monks to be accepted and tonsured at his monastery, and he forbade women to enter the monastery. A monk who left the monastery lost his right to a cell, and if he returned, he could occupy it only with the consent of the Igoumen and the brethren. Saint Innocent asked that a future church be dedicated to Saint John the Forerunner, and Baptizer of the Lord, in commemoration of the Third Finding of his Venerable Head (25 May), because Saint John is a patron for all monks and dwellers in the wilderness (later, the monastery was called Holy Transfiguration after its chief temple).

Saint Innocent went to the Lord on March 19, 1521. In accordance with his last wish, he was buried in a corner of the monastery near a marsh. A stone was placed on his grave inscribed with the year, month and day of his repose.

In the manuals of iconography, Saint Innocent is depicted as medium in stature, and his beard is wider than that of the Hieromartyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste (February 11), not forked, with slightly gray hair, wearing monastic robes.

Saint Innocent is also commemorated on the Second Sunday after Pentecost, the Synaxis of All Saints of Mount Athos (movable Feast); and also on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the Synaxis of All Saints of Novgorod and Vologda (movable Feast).