St. Alexander of Svir

Amos ran away from home in his teens to become a monk at Valaam. He then lived as a hermit in the forest by the Svir river. In 1508, the tradition says, the Holy Trinity appeared to him as three angels in white, like the visitors to Abraham, and told him to build a church. His monastery became one of the great houses of the north. His incorrupt relics were returned to it in 1998.

• Feast: April 17 (New Calendar)
• Lived: 1448–1533
• Place: Svir, Karelia