Feodor Kuzmich

Who was Feodor Kuzmich?

Fyodor Kuzmich, also Feodor Kozmich, Russian: Феодор Козьмич, Theodore of Tomsk, or Fomich was a Russian Orthodox starets. He has been canonized as a righteous saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1984.

There is a well-documented legend that claims that he was in fact Alexander I of Russia who faked his death in 1825 to become a hermit. According to one account, he lived in a modest house with a garden; protected in a variety of ways by the Imperial Chancery, he received a visit from Alexander II in 1837 and his grave was visited by Nicholas II in 1893.