Venerable Cornelius the Miracle-worker and Abbot of Komel, Vologda

Cornelius was born in Rostov in 1457 to the boyar family of the Kryukovs and as a youth served at the grand prince's court in Moscow. At about twenty he followed his uncle into the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery, where his main task was copying books. He later wandered between monasteries and hermitages near Novgorod and Tver.

In 1497 he settled in the Komel forest near Vologda, and a monastery grew up round him. For it he wrote a rule that stressed strict poverty and shared property, drawing on Nilus of Sora and Joseph of Volokolamsk; many of his disciples founded monasteries of their own. He died at Komel on 19 May 1537, aged about eighty.