Disciple of Saint Euphrosynus of Pskov
Chariton is counted among the famed disciples of Saint Euphrosynus of Pskov (born Eleazar, c. 1386, at Videlebo near Pskov). Euphrosynus entered the Snetogorsk Monastery, later withdrew to a solitary cell on the River Tolva around 1425, and gathered disciples around him, compiling a skete rule for the community and building a wooden church dedicated to the Three Holy Hierarchs in 1447 — the origin of the Spaso-Eleazarov Monastery. He declined the abbacy in favour of his disciple Ignatius, reposed on May 15, 1481, at the age of ninety-five, and was canonized at the Makaryev council in 1549.
Chariton is named alongside Euphrosynus's other notable disciples — Sava of Krypetsk, Dositheus of Verkhneostrov, Onuphrius of Malsk, Joachim of Opochsk, and Hilarion of Gdovsk — each of whom went on to establish his own monastic community. Together, the sources record, these disciples 'planted the seeds of monasticism throughout the Pskov area.'
The Monastery at Lake Kudina
Chariton founded and served as first abbot of the Kudin Chariton Monastery (Kudinskaya Kharitonova pustyn), situated at the village of Kudino by Lake Kudina, near Toropets. The settlement lay in the historic Pskov lands and later fell within the Toropets district of Tver province.
The foundation belongs to the broader movement, led by Euphrosynus's disciples, of establishing monasteries in the wilderness around Pskov. Chariton's community continued after him, its principal church later becoming a parish church.
Relics & Shrines
Chariton's relics rest beneath the floor of the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, once the main church of his monastery and later a parish church, at the Kudino pogost near Lake Kudin, roughly three kilometres from Toropets.
The existence of his relics in the former monastery church is recorded in the Novgorod Sophia Chronicle. His memory is also preserved in reference works including the Brockhaus and Ephron Encyclopedic Dictionary and the Russian Biographical Dictionary compiled by Sreznevsky.
Veneration
Chariton is venerated locally in the Russian Orthodox Church. His primary feast falls on September 28 by the Julian calendar (October 11, new style). He is not listed on the pan-Orthodox calendar of the Orthodox Church in America, which commemorates other saints named Chariton on that day — a reflection of his standing as a locally venerated saint.
He is also commemorated on April 10 (Julian) as one of the Assembly (Sobor) of the Saints of Pskov, a collective feast established in 1987 by Metropolitan John of Pskov with the blessing of Patriarch Pimen.
