Venerable (Monastic) 14th century

Venerable Pachomius Abbot of Nerekhta

d. 1384

Also known as Pachomius of Nerekhta

A priest's son who embraced the monastic life and founded a monastery at Nerekhta near Vladimir.

Feast Day

May 15

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Pachomius, Abbot of Nerekhta

Life

Pachomius of Nerekhta (died 1384) was a Russian monastic founder of the fourteenth century, active in the region between Vladimir and Kostroma. Born into a priest's family at Vladimir on the Klyazma under the secular name James, he entered monastic life at the Vladimir Nativity Monastery and was later ordained to the priesthood. After serving as the first abbot of the reopened Constantine Monastery, he withdrew into the forested country near Nerekhta, where he established a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity that became the nucleus of the later Trinity-Sypanovo community.

He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on May 15, the feast of his namesake Pachomius the Great, and on March 23, the day of his repose. He is counted among the saints associated with the Kostroma region.

Timeline 7 moments Read Hide

c. age 7 Schooling at Vladimir Born James into the family of a priest at Vladimir on the Klyazma, he was sent to school at the age of seven and was noted from childhood for his knowledge of the Scriptures.
c. age 12 Death of his father; entry into the monastery His father died when he was about twelve. He entered the Vladimir Nativity Monastery, where he carried out his monastic obediences.
c. age 21 Monastic tonsure He was tonsured at the age of twenty-one, taking the monastic name Pachomius after Saint Pachomius the Great.
1352 Ordination to the priesthood Having earlier been ordained a deacon, he was ordained a priest in 1352.
1365 First abbot of the Constantine Monastery Upon the reopening of the Constantine Monastery, he was appointed its first abbot.
1384 Repose He died in 1384 at an advanced age and was buried in the Trinity church he had built at his monastery near Nerekhta.
1675 Uncovering of his relics According to tradition his relics were uncovered on May 6, 1675, and a stone tomb was set over them in a chapel of the Trinity church.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributions Read Hide

Monastic foundation at Nerekhta

Drawn to a more solitary form of life, Pachomius left the Constantine Monastery and traveled to the outskirts of Nerekhta, on the Kostroma frontier. At the River Gridenka he found a raised, semi-island site in dense forest, in the vicinity of Sypanovo, which he judged suitable for a monastery.

Sources relate that he painted an icon of the Holy Trinity and, after a service of supplication, carried it to the site where he intended to raise a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. With the help of the surrounding people of Nerekhta, who supported the undertaking, the church was completed and a monastic community organized around it. The brethren supported themselves by their own agricultural labor, a discipline the founder is said to have shared in himself. The community he founded is known in later tradition as the Trinity-Sypanovo (Pakhomievo-Nerekhta) monastery.

Relics and veneration

Pachomius was buried in the Trinity church he had built. A disciple named Irenarchus is recorded as having made an icon of him. By tradition his relics were uncovered in 1675 and enshrined beneath a stone tomb in a chapel of the Trinity cathedral, where they were a focus of veneration.

He is commemorated on May 15, shared with Pachomius the Great after whom he was named, and on March 23, the day of his repose, and is numbered among the saints of the Kostroma region.

Notes

Distinct from St Pachomius the Great (same day, OS-0028).

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints