The life of St Savva of Zvenigorod
He was known for a marked love of solitude and a reluctance to speak more than necessary, living out his years of training in constant labor and in what the sources describe as a deep, trembling awareness of his own poverty before God's judgment, an awareness that nonetheless left him gentle rather than harsh with others; within the Trinity monastery he became, in time, confessor to the whole brotherhood there. When Prince Demetrios, in gratitude for the victory over the Tatar commander Mamai, built a monastery dedicated to the Dormition on the Dubenka River, Sergius sent Savva to be its igumen, and later still he was called to found and govern a further monastery on Storozhi hill outside Zvenigorod, keeping there the same plain fare, coarse clothing, and hard bed he had always kept. In his old age he appointed a disciple who shared his own name as his successor and reposed on December 3, 1406. Miracles reported at his grave in the years that followed left little doubt among those who had known him that their igumen had been a saint.
