St. Daniel Pereyaslavsky

In the middle of the XVI century in Pereslavl-Zalessky, an elder died, whose biography was closely intertwined with the fate of the Moscow throne. We are talking about the abbot Daniel, canonized later by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The future abbot, nee Demetrius, was born around 1460. His parents moved to the Vladimir lands from Mtsensk together with the boyar entourage. According to the descriptions of contemporaries, as a child he avoided noisy games, giving preference to reading the Scripture. A textbook episode was when the boy secretly wrapped the body with a rough rope with a merchant’s boat tied at the pier, trying to kill the flesh. The family discovered this when the wounds began to fester.

He began his monastic life in Borovsk under the guidance of Elder Leucius, where he spent ten years. Then he wandered through various monasteries until he returned to his hometown. There, in the Goritsky monastery, he was ordained a hieromonk. However, the key business of his life was the care of the “hostage” dead – people who died without repentance, whose bodies were often left without burial. There is a legend that the townspeople repeatedly observed an inexplicable glow over the pupil (common grave). Taking this as a sign, Daniel obtained permission to build a temple around which a new monastery was actually formed in 1508.

Despite the growth of the monastery, the founder shunned administrative power. Life records his habit of hard physical labor and evasion of archimandrite in Goritsy. The authority of the elder was indisputable. It is known that Grand Duke Vasily III twice invited him to become the successor of his sons. In 1530, Daniel held in his arms during the liturgy the infant John Vasilyevich, the future king.

The abbot ruled the community he created until a very old age. Feeling the end approaching, he accepted the schema. The elder died on April 7, 1540 at the 81st year of life. A century later, in 1652, under Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the burial was opened, the relics were declared incorruptible and the days of church memory were established.