Saint Feodor Kuzmich

Fyodor Kuzmich (Russian: Фёдор Кузьми́ч; c. 1776 – 1 February 1864), also known as the Righteous Theodore of Tomsk, Siberian, elder (Church Slavonic: Пра́ведный Фео́дор Кузьми́ч То́мский, Сиби́рский, ста́рец, romanized: Pravednyy Feodor Kuzmich Tomskiy, Sibirskiy, starets) was a Russian Orthodox starets. He was canonized as a righteous saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1984. There are many variations of a legend that claims that he was Alexander I of Russia who faked his death in 1825 to become a hermit. The question is still pending between historians. There are no accounts of Feodor Kuzmich's early life. The first reported incident involving Feodor Kuzmich occurred on 4 September 1836, in Krasnoufimsk of the Province of Perm riding on a “snow-white horse” harnessed on a cart. Because he had no records, nor had any background, this caused suspicions from a local blacksmith with his behavior and evasive answers. He later reported him to the authorities. The old man was detained as a tramp, there were traces of whip blows on his back, he did not have any documents with him. On September 10, his case was considered by the court: the detainee called himself sixty-year-old Feodor Kuzmich Kozmin (after that, this surname, like any other, was never called an elder), could not name his origin. By age, he was unfit to give back to soldiers and therefore, as a tramp, he received 20 whip blows and was exiled to Siberia. Fyodor Kuzmich was satisfied with the sentence, but asked the bourgeois Grigory Shpynyov to sign for him, stating that he himself was illiterate (although subsequent facts indicate the opposite). On October 13, 1836, with the 43rd batch of exiles, he was sent in stages to the Bogotolsky parish of the district of Mariinsky, in the province of Tomsk. During the journey through the stage, he attracted prisoners and escorts to himself, showing care for the weak and sick. The elder was the only prisoner who was not shackled.