Description
St. Paisios was born and named Paul in a.d. 1397 to John and Xenia Gavrenev in the village of Bogorodske near Kashin, Tver Region, Russia. His mother’s uncle, St. Macarius, was a monk in the Holy Trinity Monastery of Kalyazin, and took the young Paul in when he was orphaned at the age of 10. Seeing the young boy’s courage, wisdom, maturity, and dedication, St. Macarius tonsured him the Monk Paisios when he was just 11 years old. Soon St. Paisios was transcribing books.
Seeing years later that Prince Andrew Vasylyevich of Uglich had great love and respect for Paisios, St. Macarius gave St. Paisios the blessing to begin a new church and monastery in Uglich named for Pokrov, the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos. St. Paisios was the Godfather of the Prince’s two sons, but tragedy struck that family as Ivan III, known as the Great, imprisoned both Prince Andrew and his sons, one of whom later became St. Ignatius after living in prison for 32 years. St. Paisios was clairvoyant and a miracle-worker while alive, and also after his death at the age of 107 in a.d. 1504. O Holy Paisios, pray unto God for us!