Day of Remembrance of St. Paisiy Velichkovsky (28/11)

Venerable Paisiy (in the world Peter) was born in 1722 in the city of Poltava, in the family of John Velichkovsky. Peter's brother, father, grandfather and great-grandfather were priests. From early childhood, the monk was left without a father and brother and was raised by his mother Irina. The boy studied literacy in psalter, and at the age of 13 he was sent to study at the Kyiv Theological Academy. Here, under the leadership of Hieroschemamonk Pachomius, Peter cultivated a monastic character.

At the age of 17, the young man wished to leave the world. Leaving the academy, Peter entered the Lyubech Monastery, where his first obedience took place — rewrote books. However, he did not stay in this monastery for long: after the abbot’s repose, the novice Peter left the monastery. In one of the monasteries in the south of Russia, Peter took monastic vows with the name Parthenius, but the brethren began to call him Plato, and he humbly endured this. The young ascetic, by the will of God, became a wandering monk, moving from the monastery to the monastery. The fruit of the wanderings was an experienced knowledge of obedience, humility and intelligent prayer.

The last journey that the monk Plato made at will was to Athos. For four years the monk walked to the Holy Mountain. At the same time, the father of Moldovan hermits and elders, Vasily Polanomerulsky, arrived on Athos. Here Plato was tonsured into a robe and named Paisius.

A brotherhood was formed around Paisius, in which the tradition of bookishness was born. They were engaged in collecting the scriptures of the holy fathers and rewriting them.

At the age of 36, the Monk Paisius took holy orders. At this time, the brethren moved to the Elias monastery of the Pantokrator. This monastery became, following the example of many national Athos monasteries, the abode of the Little Russians.

The Athonite desert-dormitory stay of St. Paisius lasted 17 years. During the oppression of Mount Athos by Muslims, the elder returns to Moldavia, where he settles in the empty Dragomir Monastery of the Holy Spirit. In this monastery, the monk accepted a schema with the same name. His life was spent in works and exploits. The brethren read and translated the creations of the holy fathers.

After the Russo-Turkish War, these lands went to Austria, and Paisius, along with his brotherhood (about 350 people), went to another monastery, which was provided to them by the Moldovan ruler and the local ruler. In 1790, St. Paisius took the rank of archimandrite from the Bishop of Ekaterinoslav.

The Monk Paisiy reposed on November 15 (new style November 28), 1794 and was buried in the Cathedral Church of the Ascension in the Nemyatsky Monastery, where he worked in the last years of his life.

384