Talking about the life of a saint is a difficult task. His life is not as eventful as the life of a sovereign or commander. His inner world is generally a secret “behind seven seals.” However, narrating the life of St. Nil of Sorsky, a prominent church figure in Medieval Rus', the author finds his key to the “cherished door.” This key was the texts of 24 lives of ancient saints, which Nil Sorsky selected for his collections. They were preserved in the autographs of the reverend. And the deeper you dive into them, the more you understand what the person who copied them 500 years ago thought and felt in a small hermitage on the Sora River, not far from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.