Pachomius the Serb


Pachomius the Serb was a 15th-century Serbian hagiographer who, after taking monastic vows, was schooled on Mount Athos and mastered the ornate style of medieval Serbian literature.
In the 1450s and 1460s he resided at the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius north of Moscow. One of his major undertakings was a Russian translation of the New Testament. In about 1470 Archbishop Jonas asked him to settle in Novgorod where he prepared a set of the lives of local saints. It has been suggested that The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir was also authored by Pachomius.

Life

He arrived in Novgorod at the end of the 1430s or beginning of the 1440s, during the archiepiscopate of Evfimy II of Novgorod and, under Evfimii's aegis, he composed the Life of Varlaam of Khutyn, the founder of the Khutyn Monastery, as well as the "Tale of the Journey of Ioann on a Devil to Jerusalem." He then traveled to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra north of Moscow, where he composed the Life of Sergei of Radonezh, the founder of that monastery. He returned to Novgorod under Arcbhishop Iona, and composed the Lives of several Novgorodian bishop-saints, including those of Il'ia and Evfimii II. He later composed the Life of Moisei, Archbishop of Novgorod sometime shortly after 1484. He died sometime thereafter.

Works

Pachomius is believed to have written eleven saint's lives, including those of Metropolitan Peter of Moscow, Stephen of Perm, Ilia of Novgorod, :ru:Моисей |Moses of Novgorod, Euthymius II of Novgorod, :ru:Иона |Jonah of Novgorod, Prince Michael of Chernigov, Barlaam of Khutyn, Sergius of Radonezh, and others. He also wrote fourteen services, including those for Evfimii II, The Mother of God of the Sign in Novgorod, Metropolitan Alexius of Moscow, Anthony of Kiev, and Metropolitan Jonah of Moscow.

Legacy

A Serbian Orthodox Church monastery is named after him in Greenfield, Missouri.