Paisie Velicicovschi
He is known under the name “The Faithful Paisie from Neamţ” and was one of the greatest abbots Romania ever had. He was born on the 21st of November 1722 in Poltava town in Malorusia. His father was a priest in the town’s cathedral and shortly dies, leaving behind 12 children. At his baptism he received the name Peter and in 1735 he begins going to school, supported by his mother at the Movilian Academy in Kiev.
In the autumn of 1739, after graduating his studies, Peter starts searching a monastery beacus his soul desired the peace and tranquility of the life as a monk. He is made novice, under the name Platon. He arrives in Moldavia in 1745, he stays for a period in the Trestieni Hermitage in Râmnicul Sărat, and then he moves to the Cărnu Hermitage, near the Buzau river. Here he meets the abbot Vasile from Poiana Mărului.
In the summer of 1746 he becomes a hermit, near Pantocrator monastery. In the year 1750 the abbot Vasile from Poiana Mărului going towards Athos, helps the hermit take his vows under the name Paisie. This year, Paisie accepts appretences and receives the Saint Elijah Hermitage into his care, becomes a priest and goes to Athos where he remains for almost 17 years.
In the summer of 1763 the abbot Paisie comes to Moldavia together with his 64 apprentices and accepts to take into his care Dragomirna Monastery. There, he stays for 12 years until the 14th of September 1775, when Bucovina is taken under the command of the Habsburgic Empire. He leaves for Secu Monastery where he will stay until the summer of the year 1779 where he leaves for one last time to join Neamţ Monastery.
Inside the Neamţ monastery he spends the last 15 years of his life-the most fruitful.
There, he translates many of the Saints’ works; he organizes the monks according to the pattern at the Holy Mountain, forms a numerous synod of priests-almost 1000 monks, guides many of his apprentices to practice Jesus’ prayer and keeps a spiritual connection with many monasteries, abbots, confessors, hermits, bishops and mandarins.
On the 15th of November 1794 the great abbot of Neamţ Monastery, Paisie Velicikovschi is received by God into his eternal glory and he is buried inside the waivodal church. For his great deeds and his spiritual life inside the Romanian church, he is celebrated in the Orthodox Church on the 15th of November.