Sometimes he prayed in the forest bare-chested, all covered by mosquitoes and gnats, to the morning song of the birds. He spent his days at work, and his nights in vigilance and prayer. In the guise of a traveler, an angel of God appeared to him, showing him the way to the island.Īmos lived for seven years at the monastery as a novice, leading an austere life. Knowing that his parents had arranged a marriage for him, the youth went secretly to Valaam when he was nineteen. After speaking with the monks, the young man was fascinated by their account of the skete life (with two or three monks together) and the solitary life of the hermit. Upon coming of age, he once met some Valaam monks who had come to the Oyata to purchase necessities, and for other monastery business.īy this time Valaam was already known as a monastery of deep piety and strict ascetic life. He was always obedient and gentle, he shunned games, jokes and foul talk, he wore poor clothes and so weakened himself with fasting, that it caused his mother anxiety. They prayed fervently and heard a voice from above: "Rejoice, good man and wife, you shall bear a son, in whose birth God will give comfort to His Church."Īmos grew up to be a special child. Stephen and Vassa wanted to have another son. They had sons and daughters who were already grown and lived away from their parents. His parents, Stephen and Vassa (Vasilisa) were peasants of the near Lake Ladoga village of Mandera near Lake Ladoga, at the bank of the River Oyata, a tributary of the River Svira. He was a beacon of monasticism in the deep forests of the Russian North, living in asceticism, and he was granted the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. Saint Alexander of Svir was born on July 15, 1448, on the feast day of the Prophet Amos, and was named for him in Baptism.
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