Paisius of Galich was a fifteenth-century Russian monastic who is commemorated as the abbot of the Dormition monastery near the town of Galich, in the region later attached to the Kostroma diocese. Few details of his life are preserved in the English-language synaxaria; the Orthodox Church in America records only his commemoration on May 23, while fuller tradition is carried in Russian hagiographic and historical sources tied to the monastery that came to bear his name.
By those accounts he died in 1460, having reached old age in the monastic life, and held the rank of archimandrite. The community he led, earlier known under other dedications, became known after him as the Paisiev-Galichsky monastery and remained closely associated with the wonderworking Ovinovskaya icon of the Mother of God.
Contributions & Legacy
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Life and Monastic Office
Russian tradition places the repose of Paisius on May 23, 1460, and relates that he lived to an advanced age within the monastic life. He is remembered as archimandrite of the monastery near Galich, a house that had earlier borne the dedications of Saint Nicholas and of the Dormition of the Mother of God before it came to be called the Paisiev-Galichsky monastery in his memory.
According to these accounts Paisius served as spiritual father within the circle of the boyar family of Ovin, and is said to have traveled to Moscow to petition the grand prince for the protection of his monastery, after which he was raised to the dignity of archimandrite. The English synaxaria preserve none of this narrative, recording only his title, his monastic standing, and his feast day.
The Ovinovskaya Icon
Paisius's memory is bound up with the Ovinovskaya, or Dormition, icon of the Mother of God, venerated at the monastery of Saint Paisius in what later became the Kostroma diocese. Tradition holds that the icon took its name from the boyar Ovin (Ovinov), to whom it appeared on the shore of Lake Galich; on the site of its appearance, during the era of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, a church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was built.
Later tradition relates that the icon was carried to Moscow by Grand Prince Vasily Vasilyevich, and that Paisius himself bore a copy of it when he traveled to the capital on the monastery's behalf. These accounts are transmitted as pious tradition surrounding the icon and the monastery rather than as independently documented events.
Relics & Shrines
By tradition the relics of Paisius rest beneath the floor of the Dormition church of the Paisiev-Galichsky monastery, which preserved his memory together with the veneration of the Ovinovskaya icon of the Mother of God.
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