d. c. 1420
The founder of monastic life on Pali Island in Lake Onega, where disciples gathered around him in the northern wilderness.
Our Venerable Father Cornelius, Abbot of Paleostrov
Cornelius of Paleostrov was a Russian monastic of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries who founded a monastery on an island in Lake Onega, in the Olonets region of the Russian North. Born at Pskov, he took up the monastic life as an adult and was associated in his early formation with the Valaam Monastery before settling in the northern wilderness.
He is remembered as the organizer of cenobitic life on Pali Island (also recorded as Paleh or Vzpalye), where a brotherhood gathered around him and two churches were raised. His memory is kept on May 19 and on August 21, the latter the commemoration tied to Paleostrov and Olonets. He is distinct from the better-known Cornelius of Komel, who shares the May 19 date.
The sources record that Cornelius practiced severe fasting and wore heavy iron chains as part of his ascetic discipline. In the final years of his life he withdrew to a cave reported to lie about half a verst from the monastery, where he gave himself to unceasing prayer.
Tradition relates that during evening prayer he was granted a vision of Christ, who appeared blessing him and the monastery. Such an account is preserved in the synaxarion rather than in documentary record.
Cornelius's disciple and successor, Saint Abraham (Abramius) of Paleostrov, oversaw the transfer of his relics, described in the sources as incorrupt, from the cave into the monastery's cathedral church. Abraham, who is commemorated on August 21, was himself buried at the Paleostrov Monastery beside his elder.
Distinct from Cornelius of Komel (same day). Aug 21 = his Paleostrov (Olonets) commemoration.