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Father Melchizedek was considered the strictest monk in the strictest monastery in all of Russia, reaching the very highest degree of ascetic withdrawal from the world.

The novice monks were terrified of him, but during a difficult time one gathered up the courage to ask -

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his advice, he writes :

Father Melchizedek listened to me silently, standing as ever with his head drooping down in melancholy. When I was finished, he lifted up his eyes to me and suddenly burst into tears, and wept most bitterly:

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“My brother!” he cried out in inexpressible pain. “Why are you asking me for advice? I myself am perishing!”

- From Everyday Saints by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov