Nil Sorsky

Nil Sorsky
Born	1443 Moscow
Died	May 7, 1508
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Catholicism
Feast	May 7

Nil Sorsky (Russian: Нил Сорский, also Nilus of Sora and Nil Sorski; birth name: Nikolai Maikov (Russian: Николай Майков) (c. 1433–1508) became a leader of a tendency in the medieval Russian Orthodox Church known as the "Non-possessors" which opposed ecclesiastic landownership. The Russian Orthodox Church venerates Nil Sorsky as a saint, marking his feast day on the anniversary of his on May 7.

Nilus of Sora, a great ascetic of the Russian Church, was descended from the Maikov nobility. Before becoming a monk, Nil Sorsky worked as a scribe and was engaged in book copying. Later in his life, he took monastic vows at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, which had been known for its hostile stance towards monastic landownership. The founder of the monastery – Saint Kirill of Beloozero – was himself known for rejecting villages that had been offered to him by devout nobles.

Kirill’s followers adopted his ways and would later become known as the startsy from out the Volga with Nil Sorsky as their leader. Soon, he went on a journey to the Holy Land and visited Palestine, Constantinople, and Mount Athos, acquainting himself with a mystical doctrine of Hesychasm and reading patristic literature. Upon his return to Russia (between 1473 and 1489), Nil Sorsky founded a cloister on the Sora River (hence, Nil Sorsky, or Nil of Sora) not far from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, where he would settle down with his followers. He wrote extensively.

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