GIUSEPPE PANIN of VOLOKALAMSK. - One of the most celebrated monks of medieval Russia (1439-1515).
Born into a noble family, he entered monastic life under Abbot Pafnuzio at the monastery of Bobrovsk, where he devoted himself with great zeal to the restoration of religious life, weakened by excessive wealth. Both strict discipline, not without severe punishments, in communal life and the splendor of liturgical worship contributed to this. An obstacle to limiting the monastery’s wealth was the fact that the indispensable admission of candidates for the episcopate belonging to aristocratic families could not be prevented.
To overcome these difficulties, G. founded his own monastery at Volokalamsk, west of Moscow, which became the center from which that monastic reform and that renewal of lay piety radiated, giving a new aspect to Russia’s religious life for several centuries. Until the 17th century, monasticism was the guiding element of the Church there. G. opposed with all his strength the onslaught both of the sects of the Judaizers and of the heresy of the anti-Trinitarians, and of Western humanism.
His masterpiece in this regard is the Prosvjetitel (“The Illuminator”). He succeeded in suppressing heresy (also employing the death penalty) and in eliminating every influence of humanism. He has therefore rightly become the father of the Russian Middle Ages. He left no religious writings in the Western sense of the term.