Truth of Christianity

Moldavian elder Paisiy Velichkovsky. His life, teaching and influence on Orthodox monasticism The Moldavian elder, Archimandrite of the Nyametsky Monastery in Moldova, Hieroschemamonk Paisius (Velichkovsky) occupies a special place in the history of Orthodox monasticism and the Orthodox Church. His person amazingly combined holiness of personal life, love of enlightenment, a remarkable ability to organize a monastic cenobitic brotherhood, the ability to attract and spiritually educate a large host of students, create around him a large school of Orthodox spiritual asceticism and, finally, great literary talent, which helped him accomplish an important and necessary task - the correction of old translations and a new translation of patristic ascetic literature. By his origin and by his activities, Elder Paisios simultaneously belongs to two local Churches - Russian and Moldavian. A native of Little Russia, he spent his entire early childhood, school years and early youth in Russia, studied at the Kyiv Academy, wandered through Ukrainian monasteries in a fruitless search for spiritual guidance; being 20 years old, he moved to Wallachia and 4 years later went to Mount Athos, where he lived for 17 years, first in complete solitude, and then at the head of a gradually growing brotherhood, with whom he later moved to Moldavia, where he remained until the end of his life, more and more deepening and expanding his activities, his spiritual influence and his glory in the Orthodox and even in the non-Orthodox world. In all fairness, he can be called a renovator of the spiritual life of Moldovan and Russian monasticism. He gave clear definitions of the main goal and prepared persons capable of realizing this goal through the means he specified. With his example, activities and translations, Elder Paisios caused a huge spiritual movement in Orthodox monasticism, especially noticeable in Russia, where it embraced not only monks, but also secular society of all classes. It is impossible to correctly imagine the spiritual state of Russian monasticism and the Russian people in the 18th and 19th centuries without taking into account the spiritual influence of Elder Paisius and his disciples. This influence spread to more than 100 monasteries in 35 dioceses of the Russian Church, through more than 200 disciples of the elder and their successors. Under his influence, the face of Russian monasticism changed: the importance of internal spiritual achievement increased, the nature of which can be judged by the eldership of Optina Pustyn and by its depiction in Russian literature - “The Brothers Karamazov”. The most famous of Russian writers (Gogol, I.V. Kireevsky, Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, V.S. Solovyov, K.N. Leontiev, etc.) noticed this spiritual movement in Russian monasticism, studied it and experienced its influence. The first description of the life and work of the elder in Russian was published by Optina Pustyn in 1847. This was a translation of the elder’s biography, compiled by his disciple Hieroschemamonk Plato. In Moldova, the first biography of Elder Paisius was compiled by his cell attendant Mitrofan, who lived with him for 30 years. It was compiled 20 years after the death of the elder in the Slavic language. The following biography, in Moldovan language, very extensive, was compiled by Isaac. Gregory, the future Metropolitan of Moldova, outlined the Moldavian life of Elder Paisius in an abbreviated form. Finally, Plato, using the lives of Mitrofan and Isaac, compiled from them a new biography of the elder in the Slavic language in 1836. This work went through several editions and served as material for a number of other biographies of the elder, published at different times in Russian. In 1913, the Right Reverend Sylvester, Bishop of Priluki, vicar of the Poltava diocese, conceived the publication of the Poltava-Pereyaslav Patericon, which was to include the biographies of many ascetics who were born or lived within the Poltava region. The biography of Elder Paisius (Velichkovsky), a native of Poltava, was entrusted to the compiler of this book. Thanks to the assistance of Bishop Sylvester, as well as Archbishop Feofan of Poltava and the Poltava St. Macarius Diocesan Brotherhood, we had the opportunity to take advantage of the rich handwritten material stored in the libraries of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences and the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, in the Moscow Synodal (Patriarchal) Library, in the Oryol Diocesan ancient repository, in the libraries of Optina Pustyn and the Novo-Nyametsky Monastery in Bessarabia. The outbreak of war and the subsequent revolution stopped our work for a while. It resumed in 1921 in Yugoslavia: the notes taken from Russia were put in order in the silence and solitude of the Serbian church parish. We had a strong desire to visit Romania and the place of residence of Elder Paisius - the Neamets Monastery and collect additional information about him there, but we did not have the opportunity to fulfill this desire. And only 10 years later, in 1931, thanks to unexpectedly fortunate circumstances, we had to visit Romania, visit the ancient monasteries associated with the name of Elder Paisius - Neamets and Sekul, get acquainted with their libraries, visit the New Neametsky monastery on the Dniester, work in Bucharest and collect additional information about Elder Paisius in all these places. We express our deepest gratitude to all the institutions and individuals who have provided us with compassionate, attentive and helpful assistance in our work everywhere. We are aware of the shortcomings of our book, written in the unfavorable conditions of emigrant life, and we ask forgiveness for them. Archpriest Sergius Chetverikov You might be interested in: