In the Orthodox Christian tradition, saints are people who have had the church episcopal dignity and who have diligently labored in the work of preaching and spreading the Christian faith. Such a great saint is Saint Herman.
The future saint of Kazan was born in 1505 in Staritsa (Tver province). Received a pious upbringing in his family from a young age. German came from the family of the princes of the Field. Christian education affected the future saint: he fell in love with prayer and abstinence.
At the age of 25, German received monastic tonsure at the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery, where he asceticised under the wise spiritual guidance of Abbot Guria, who later became Archbishop of Kazan. For his pious life and special spiritual wisdom, German was appointed archimandrite of the Assumption Monastery (Tver province). This event took place in 1551. Soon Herman again returned to his spiritual teacher.
In 1555, Gury was made archbishop in Kazan and he was entrusted with the establishment of a monastic monastery in Sviyazhsk for the implantation of the Orthodox faith. Saint Gurius summoned Herman to be his assistant. The latter worked hard in preaching the Christian faith.
After the death of Saint Guria, a follower of the saint (Archimandrite German) was made archbishop in the city of Kazan. Saint German was not for long at the Kazan See, but he left about himself the memory of the great archpastor and prayer book for the Russian people.
It is known from the life of Saint German that he was one of the candidates for the post of Moscow Metropolitan. After the abdication of Metropolitan Athanasius in 1566, Saint German was summoned to Moscow. There the righteous man began to denounce Tsar Ivan the Terrible and began to admonish the ruler in the Christian life. Seeing such severity of the saint, the tsar decided not to appoint saint Herman to the metropolitan of Moscow. Soon Saint German died. This happened in 1567 in Moscow. The body of the archpastor was buried in the Nikolo-Mokrenskaya church, and in 1965, at the request of the inhabitants of Sviyazhsk, the imperishable relics of the righteous man were transferred to his hometown.
The Orthodox Church commemorates the great ascetic of piety on the day of his death - November 19 in a new style.
