The life of St Cyril of New Lake
There the igumen Cornelius tonsured him into monastic life, giving him the name Cyril, and formed him for a number of years in the community's discipline. With Cornelius's blessing, Cyril eventually left the community that had first strengthened him and set out into the wilder coastal regions, wandering through forest and waste ground and living on roots and berries rather than settle anywhere permanently. Arriving at length at the Tikhvin monastery, he spent three days and nights there in unbroken prayer before the icon of the Mother of God, and tradition holds that she appeared to him in a dream, approving his labor and directing him eastward toward White Lake; there he found a small island from which, the same tradition says, a pillar of fire rose visibly into the sky, marking the place he was meant to settle. He built himself a hut beneath an ancient spruce tree and, in time, two small churches, one for the Resurrection and one for the Hodegetria icon of the Theotokos, drawing a community of disciples around him and becoming known across the region for miracles, especially the restoration of sight to the blind. Cyril reposed on February 4, 1532, and when his grave was later opened, his coffin was found intact and undisturbed among the roots of the very tree that had first sheltered him.
