The life of St Antony of Siya
That loss turned him fully toward the life he had perhaps already been drawn to; he gave away what he had to the poor and made his way to a wilderness monastery on the Kena River, where he was tonsured with the name Anthony and in time ordained a priest.
In 1520, with the permission of the Grand Prince, he founded a monastery of his own in the northern wilderness on the Siya River. The labor of clearing that harsh land was difficult enough that some of his companions grew resentful of him, but unexpected help arrived to see the community through, and the monastery he built went on to become well known, drawing visitors from the villages around it. For a time Anthony withdrew even further, to a solitary cell by a remote lake, but he was persuaded to return and take up the community's leadership once more when its appointed superior stepped down. He reposed in 1556, remembered as the founder of one of the notable monasteries of the Russian north.
