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The Nilov Monastery is a legendary place in the Orthodox faith, like the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, or the Solovetsky or Valaam monasteries. Back in time immemorial, a hermit named Nil had settled on this then uninhabited island. He had sworn a shocking vow: for the salvation of his soul, he forbade himself to lie down or sit. He spent his entire life standing, like a pillar – stolb in Russian, hence the island’s name Stolbny. How can a person live standing up? How could they work, eat, and sleep all the time like that? If anyone wants to find out, let them try it for themselves and see if they can avoid sitting or lying down for even a single day.
After the Revolution, the Bolsheviks naturally closed the monastery down and built a camp for political prisoners on the island, as had happened
