Koptyaki, Russia, April 19, 2018
Photo: ganinayama.ru Fr. Abel, beloved by the brethren, parishioners, and pilgrims, who always offered efficacious prayers to the Lord for others, departed to the Lord after a serious illness. He was 69 years old.
The spiritual path of the future schemamonk began in 2001 when Alexei Odintsev, a successful 53-year-old engineer, went to the newly-built Royal Monastery.
He was tonsured as a stavrophore monk on December 26, 2002 by Archbishop Vikenty of Ekaterinburg and Verkoturye with the name Auxenty, in honor of the martyr Auxentius of Sebaste.
Monk Auxenty was ordained to the diaconate and later to the priesthood in 2003. Since then, his life was inextricably bound to the Royal Monastery. He would leave beyond the gates of the monastery only to communicate with pilgrims, to accompany the sacred objects of the monastery, or to go on pilgrimage to Mt. Athos.
He acquired many spiritual children, for whom he ever fervently prayed in secret. There was always a line to Fr. Auxenty for confession. He later became a spiritual father for the monastery brethren, and from 2016, for the monastics of the Ekaterinburg Diocese.
Fr. Auxenty was given several priestly awards for his service to the Church.
In 2017, Fr. Auxenty appealed to Metropolitan Kirill of Ekaterinburg, with the unanimous consent of the monastery council: “I humbly ask you to consider the possibility of my tonsure into the Great Schema, because I feel with all my heart the need to deepen my fasting and prayer. Being of a great old age, I would like to have the time to serve our Lord Jesus Christ more than I do now.”
His tonsure into the Great Schema, the highest degree of monasticism, took place on March 30 after the Presanctified Liturgy. He received the name Abel, in honor of the Forefather Abel, the son of the First-Created Adam, who is celebrated annually on March 30.
Hieroschemamonk Abel’s funeral was served today following the Divine Liturgy.
May his memory be eternal!
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