Sergius of Radonezh has long been one of the most revered saints in Russia, and the Trinity Monastery that he founded in 1392 is easily the most visited monastery. The early history (to 1605) of the portrayal of St Sergius by the builders and ideologues of a Russian national consciousness and their use of the importance of the Trinity monastery in Russian Orthodoxy to create a Russian national identity is the subject of this book. Miller has researched a wide variety of sources related to Sergius and his monastery, including the saint's vita, state, ecclesiastical and private charters in government archives regarding the monastery's property holdings, cartularies, donation books, books of prayers for the dead and feast books. On that basis, Miller has formulated eleven chronological periods for discussion, ranging from 1392–1422 to 1584–1605. His criteria for the boundary markers of these periods are three in number: (1.) the periods must make historical sense; (2.) they provide ‘a rational arrangement for aggregative purposes of charters with estimated dates’ (pp. 8–9); and (3.) there be no more than moderate variations in length of periods. Miller argues that the cult of Sergius and his monastery ‘were vital elements of an emerging Russian identity’ by creating ‘a horizontal community of venerators’ (p. 10). The dimensions of the creation included the establishment of the monastery as a ‘site of memory’ for the co-development of the Sergius cult and of a ‘Muscovite national consciousness’; a ‘social bonding of elites’ who became involved with the monastery's ‘economic life and memorial culture’; and the transformation of the monastery ‘into an economic engine, second only to the state in unifying Russia’ (p. 10). By 1605, for example, the Trinity Monastery was second only to the Muscovite Russian state itself in wealth and prestige. Besides discussing and analysing issues surrounding the historical Sergius and the creation of his cult, Miller devotes chapters to ‘Trinity patrons’, ‘Trinity's monks’, ‘Trinity's female venerators’ and ‘Interment at Trinity’. The appendix has three tables for the period 1392 to 1605: one devoted to listing donations to the monastery, a second devoted to the monastery's acquisitions of property, and a third to provide evidence of secular literacy in the monastery's private charters. A bibliography and index round out the book.