Changes

Our venerable and God-bearing Father '''Serapion of Kozheozero''' (or ''of Kozhe Lake'') is a sixteenth-century Russian [[saint]] who was once [[Muslim]]. He founded and became [[igumen]] of the famous [[monastery]] in Kozheozero. His [[feast day]] is celebrated on [[June 26]] or [[June 27|27]].

==Life==

The Tatar Tursas (later Serapion) was born and grew up in the Kazan khanate. He was descended from a noble Tatar family and was brought up as a Muslim. When Kazan was taken by Russia in 1552, he was captured alongside other nobles, who were brought to Moscow and taken under the patronage of boyar Zacharia Ivanovich Plescheev. Plescheev's wife, a Tatar princess Iliaksha (christened ''Juliania'') was Tursas' relative. In Moscow many eminent Tatars began to [[convert]] to Orthodoxy: prince Utemysh-Gyrei was [[baptism|baptized]] with the name ''Alexander'', and the last khan of Kazan, Ediger-Mohammed, confessed faith in [[Christ]], and was named ''Simeon''. Inspired by these examples and persuaded by Juliania, who had been Orthodox for quite a while by that time, Tursas was baptized with the name ''Sergius''. It is quite possible that he was christened in honor of St. [[Sergius of Radonezh]], who had been [[canonization|canonized]] over a hundred years before and was deeply revered.