Pavel of Taganrog

The Blessed starets Saint Pavel of Taganrog
Icon of Pavel of Taganrog (below) and an Eastern Orthodox icon of the Virgin Mary on Kelya of Saint Pavel of Taganrog.
Born	21 November 1792 Chernigov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	23 March 1879 Taganrog, Russian Empire
Venerated in	Don Land, South of Russia and Ukraine
Canonized	20 June 1999, Taganrog, Russia by Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	St.Nicholas The Wonderworker Church
Feast	21 November

The Blessed starets Saint Paul of Taganrog (Russian: Павел Таганрогский - Pavel Taganrogskiy, born Pavel Pavlovich Stozhkov) dramatically influenced the belief in God and spiritual outlook of inhabitants of Taganrog, Don Land, South of Russia and Ukraine. A plain layman, who lived in Taganrog in the 19th century, he conciliated love and worship of Russian Orthodox Christians, who flowed to him for a piece of advice and spiritual support.

Pavel Pavlovich Stozhkov was born on November 21 (November 8 OS), 1792 in Malorossia guberniya of the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) in a rich noble family. His parents – collegiate registrar Pavel and Paraskeva – were devoutly religious people, they infused in the heart of their son belief in God and piety. Since his youth Pavel had felt a flaming love for holy places and pilgrimage. He related about himself: “All my desire was to pray to God, my intention was to go on pilgrimage to rescue my soul, because surrounding life was full of secular vanity and impeded my holy wish”. His father would never let him become a clergyman; he wanted to provide his son with a higher education. Instead of this, the 16-year-old young man followed the voice of his heart, secretly left the home of his parents and went on pilgrimages to monasteries for a year and finally received a severe punishment from his father.

When Pavel was 25 years old, his father decided to divide the property between him and his elder brother Ivan. With a comfortable inheritance, the young ascetic dispensed it in Christ's name, the father gave his blessing and young Pavel left home forever. He wandered a lot to holy places, including to Kiev Pechersk Lavra and Pochaiv Lavra Lavras that he visited several times; he liked to go to the north of Russia, visited Solovetskiy, Verkolskiy, Kojeozerskiy cloisters and many others.