The Monk Arsenii of Konevsk

Commemorated on June 12

The Monk Arsenii of Konevsk was a native of Novgorod. He was a craftsman and he fashioned various items from copper. The saint accepted tonsure at the Lisich monastery near Novgorod, where he spent 11 years. From there he set off to Athos. And there the Monk Arsenii spent three years, dwelling in prayer and preparing for the Athos brethren vessels of copper.
In the year 1393 the Monk Arsenii returned to Russia and brought with him an icon of the Mother of God, which afterwards was called the Konevsk. The Monk Arsenii set out with this icon to the island of Konevets on Lake Ladoga. Here he spent five years in solitude. In 1398 with the blessing of the Novgorod archbishop Ioann, the Monk Arsenii laid the foundations of a common-life monastery in honour of the Nativity of the MostHoly Mother of God. He visited Athos a second time, and besought of the holy fathers their prayers and blessing for the monastery. In 1421 the lake flooded, wiping out the monastery structures, and it forced the Monk Arsenii to relocate the monastery to a new spot on the island. The Monk Arsenii died in the year 1447 and was buried in the monastery church. The life of the monk was written during the XVI Century by the Konevsk hegumen Varlaam. In 1850 the Life of the Monk Arsenii was published together with the service and laudation.