Though very few details of his life are known, tradition does give a basic outline. Andrei (commonly Andrew in English) went to a monastery, called Holy Trinity Monastery, at a young age and grew up there. He was greatly influenced by St Sergius of Radonezh, the igumen of the monastery. Eventually Andrei decided to become a monk, and with the blessing of the new igumen of his monastery traveled to another, the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery, founded by St Andronik (June 13). There he was tonsured a monk and began to study iconography under Theophanes the Greek and a monk named Daniel.