This happened in 1540: two monks connected by bonds of spiritual friendship, Adrian and Leonid, were laboring in the Kornilievo-Komel monastery. Once in church, Adrian drew reverent attention to a majestic elder of magnificent appearance, whom he did not know, and he asked his name. "I am Bestuzh," the elder replied. Elder Adrian invited him to his cell, and during a spiritual conversation, Elder Bestuzh revealed to him that he, Adrian, was destined by God to found a monastery and that he knew a deserted place suitable for silent prayer. 
According to the rule of St. Cornelius (May 19), the abbot was not supposed to keep monks in the monastery who wanted to devote themselves to a solitary life. The farewell took place at the grave of St. Cornelius. The abbot blessed Elder Adrian and his disciple and friend, Elder Leonid, with the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and they set off on their journey. In a dense forest, five versts from the present town of Poshekhonya, elder Bestuzh miraculously disappeared from the eyes of his companions, who were struck with awe, and at the same time the forest resounded with the mysterious ringing of invisible bells.
Then the elders placed the holy icon on a tall oak tree on the bank of a stream, and they themselves went to look for a place suitable for a hermit's life. At that time, fishermen landed on the shore and were surprised to see the holy icon. One of them wanted to take it off, but was thrown back by a miraculous force. When he came to himself, he said that he had seen an elder who had forbidden him to touch the holy icon. Then the fishermen decided to leave the place, but they left bread and caught fish under the tree. When the elders returned, they thanked God and his Most Pure Mother for taking care of them. They realized that this was the place they had indicated. They set up a hut here and began to asceticism, and then founded a monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the first in this region. All the locals rejoiced at this, and especially the women, although they were forbidden access to the monastery. But the monastery also had enemies.
After the death of Elder Leonid (March 5, 1550), the monastery was attacked by robbers — peasants of the neighboring village of Bely — robbed him, and the abbot, St. Adrian, was brutally tortured and killed by crushing the runners of a sleigh. But they did not manage to avoid retribution. One of them stole the casket, thinking that it contained gold, but instead he found strange and incomprehensible things: brushes, paints and other accessories of icon painting. He showed all this to the priest of the village of Bely, who, by diabolical action, harbored great malice and envy for Saint Adrian: at his instigation, the crime was committed. The priest was terribly frightened, realizing that the casket was a dangerous piece of evidence for them. But their conversation was accidentally overheard by the second priest of the village, who suffered a lot from the bad influence of his rector on the parishioners. 
Thus, the crime was discovered and the perpetrators suffered a well-deserved punishment. But the body of the Venerable martyr was not found: during the interrogation, the murderers testified that they wanted to burn it, but it disappeared to no one knows where. So many years have passed. There was a long-vanished church in the vicinity of the monastery. Mountain ash grew there, to which the locals paid superstitious reverence: people gathered there, and the sick were led through the branches of the mountain ash, and, indeed, the sick were healed. To destroy this superstition, deacon Ivan Prokhoryev rebuilt a church there in the name of the holy prophet Elijah, and then built a monastery there. In 1626, a monk of this monastery, who came from the village of Bely, died; before his death, he revealed to the abbot, Abbot Laurentius, a secret kept in their family: the relics of St. Adrian, saved from robbers by the grandfather of this monk, were buried under a rowan tree, which was considered miraculous. 
Out of fear of the authorities and interrogations, he hid it and buried them secretly, and planted a rowan tree there for memory, and the healings that took place at this place flowed from the holy relics. The abbot reported this to the Patriarch, and at his command, they began to search for the holy relics. Abbot Laurentius randomly indicated to the ambassadors where to dig, and immediately the holy relics of St. Adrian were found incorruptible. Many miracles flowed from them.
On the days of the saint's memory, Divine Liturgies are held at the Adrian Monastery in the village of Sloboda, Poshekhonsky deanery.