Monastic Formation
According to his Life, Paul was born at Moscow in 1317 into a wealthy household that prepared him for a secular career, but he inclined from youth toward piety and care for the poor. At twenty-two he left home secretly and was tonsured a monk at the Nativity monastery on the Volga, in the Yaroslav diocese.
He subsequently came to the Holy Trinity monastery of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, where he lived for several years as Sergius's disciple in obedience to the elder. With Sergius's blessing he then took up the life of a hermit in a separate cell a short distance from the monastery, remaining there for fifteen years.
Hermitage and Asceticism
Desiring still greater solitude, Paul left the vicinity of the Holy Trinity monastery to wander the wilderness in search of a quiet place. The sources record that he spent time with Saint Abraham of Chukhloma before settling in the Komel forest.
At the Gryazovitsa River he made his dwelling in the hollow of an old linden tree, where he is said to have lived for three years in complete silence. He afterward moved to the River Nurma, where he built a hut and dug a well. His ascetic regimen was severe: according to the tradition recorded in his Life, he took no food on five days of the week, eating only some bread and water on Saturday and Sunday.
Foundation of the Obnora Monastery
With the blessing of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and the agreement of Metropolitan Photius, Paul built the Holy Trinity church in 1414. A community gathered around it, which came to be called the Monastery of Saint Paul of Obnora.
He composed a strict monastic Rule for the brotherhood and entrusted the active leadership of the monastery to his disciple Alexis, while continuing to keep his own solitary cell on a nearby hill.
Repose and Veneration
The tradition recorded in his Life states that Saint Paul reposed at an advanced age, his final words urging the brethren to keep love for one another and to hold to the rule of the monastic community. His Life was composed about 1546, and his glorification took place in 1547.
He is commemorated on January 10. Within the Russian tradition additional commemorations are observed, and relics attributed to him have been distributed; fragments are kept, for example, in a reliquary at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, D.C.
