Historian Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky wrote that Sergius, along with Epiphanius the Wise, Stephen of Perm, and the painter Andrei Rublev, signified "the Russian spiritual and cultural revival of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century".

His medieval biography states that he was born to Kiril and Maria, a boyar family, near Rostov, on the spot where Varnitsy Monastery [ru] now stands.

[7] When the Rostov principality fell into the hands of Ivan I of Moscow, his parents Kirill and Maria became impoverished and moved to Radonezh together with their three sons, Stefan, Bartholomew and Peter.

In the deep forest at Makovets Hill they decided to build a small monastic cell and a church dedicated in honor of the Trinity.

Varfolomei (Bartholomew) was tonsured a monk and given the name Sergius, following which he spent more than a year in the forest alone as a hermit.

During the reign of Dmitri Donskoi, his disciples started to spread his teaching across central and northern Russia.

All in all, the disciples of Sergius founded about 40 monasteries, thus greatly extending the geographical extent of his influence and authority.

[3] Some historians interpreted his political stance as aspiring to make peace and unite Russian lands under the leadership of Moscow.

The relics were returned by Pavel Golubtsov, later "Archbishop Sergius", to the cathedral of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra in 1946 when it was reopened.

Historian Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky wrote that Sergius, along with Epiphanius the Wise, Stephen of Perm, and the painter Andrei Rublev, signified "the Russian spiritual and cultural revival of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century".