The Monk Philip of Rabangsk

Commemorated on November 15

The Monk Philip of Rabangsk was the founder of the Saviour-Transfiguration monastery, situated near Kadnikov to the northeast of Vologda. He spent the beginning of his monastic life in the monastery of the Monk Dionysii of Glushitsk (Comm. 1 June) and was one of his closest disciples.
Upon the death of his teacher and spiritual father, Saint Philip left the Glushitsk monastery and settled in a sparsely populated area at the confluence of the Sukhona and Rabanga Rivers. The saint wanted to lead his life in complete solitude. The local inhabitants learned about him, and wanting his graced guidance to become monks, they began to come to him in the wilderness. Having accepted this as a mandate from above, the Monk Philip journeyed to Rostov to Archbishop Ephrem and asked of the saint a blessing for the founding of a monastery and construction of a church in honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord (the temple was built in 1447). Tradition relates, that the holy founder of the Saviour-Transfiguration monastery was extremely strict towards himself and lenient towards the infirmities of others. The Monk Philip died on 15 November 1457 and was buried in the monastery founded by him.