PAISIJ, VELIČKOVSKIJ. - 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 introducing there the spirit and distinctive spiritual direction of Hesychast monasticism through an “elder” (starez; v.). Thus Hesychasm definitively influenced Russian monasticism. The “Jesus Prayer” made its entrance, and P. translated the Philokalia into Russian; it appeared in 1793 at S. Peterburgo under the title Dobrotoljubie. P. thus had many friends and adherents also among the Eastern Slavs, who accepted his ideas and the particular nature of his spiritual direction. P. was the promoter of a great movement of restoration originating from within the Russian State Church.