Venerable Paisius Abbot of Galich

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.