PAISIJ, VELICHKOVSKIJ. - Ukrainian monk, b. at Poltava in 1722, d. at Njamez in 1794. Having become a monk, he visited Mount Athos and finally settled at Njamez in Moldavia.

His disciples founded 3 monasteries in the surrounding area, established on the basis of cenobitic life. P. succeeded in establishing in them the spirit and the characteristic spiritual direction of Hesychast monasticism by means of a "elder" (starez; v.). With this, Hesychasm definitively influenced Russian monasticism. The "Jesus prayer" made its entry, and P. translated the Philokalia into Russian, which appeared in 1793 at St. Petersburg under the title Dobrotoljubie. P. thus had many friends and followers also among the Eastern Slavs, who accepted his ideas and the special character of his spiritual direction. P. was the promoter of a great movement of restoration, which began from within in the Russian state Church.

Bibliography

BIBL.: A. M. Ammann, Storia della Chiesa russa e dei paesi limitrofi, Turin 1948, pp. 416-17.

Alberto Maria Ammann

@incollection{ec9_paisij_velickovsij, author = {Ammann, Alberto Maria}, title = {Paisij, veličkovsij}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {558}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/paisij-velickovsij} }

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Paisij, Velichkovskij

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