 |
| St. Methodius of Peshnosha (Feast Day - June 4) |
Venerable Methodius was the founder of the Saint Nicholas Peshnosha Monastery in the Dmitrovsky District of Moscow in 1361. In his youth he went to Saint Sergius of Radonezh and spent several years under his guidance. Later on, with the blessing of Saint Sergius, he withdrew to a solitary place and built himself a cell in the forest beyond the River Yakhroma. Soon several disciples came to him in this marshy place, wishing to imitate his life. Saint Sergius visited him and advised him to build a monastery and church. Saint Methodius himself toiled at the construction of the church and the cells, on foot carrying wood along the river, and from that time the monastery began to be called “Peshnosha.”
In 1391 Saint Methodius became abbot of this monastery. The monks who settled here led a hard-working lifestyle, earning their own food and doing all the work necessary for the monastery, so this monastery was primarily a monastery of industriousness. At times he withdrew two versts from the monastery to pray in solitude. Here also Saint Sergius came to him for spiritual conversation, therefore this spot became known as “Beseda” (“Conversation-place”).
Saint Methodius died in 1392 and was buried at the monastery he founded. A church dedicated to Saints Sergius of Radonezh and Methodius of Peshnosha was built over his relics in 1732. The beginning of his local veneration dates from the late seventeenth—early eighteenth centuries.
