Kirik Maksimov

Kirik Maksimov was a Russian schemaarchimandrite, one of the central figures in the history of St Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. He was born in 1864 into a peasant family at Vyshnekhmelevoe, Maloarkhangelsk district, Orel province, and reposed in Serbia, at Pancevo, on 2 December 1938. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Konstantin Nikiforovich in the world, the son of Ekaterina, as a boy he was thoughtful and impressionable. In 1886 he came to Athos and entered St Panteleimon, where he worked in the chancery and for almost three years enjoyed the closeness of the great abbot Macarius, from whom he received many lessons in piety. On 15 June 1887 he was tonsured a rassophore with the name Kirik, into the mantle on 6 March 1892, hierodeacon on 30 November 1894 and hieromonk on 27 July 1898. His chief guide was Father Agathodorus (Budanov), who passed on to him unchanged the teaching of the great elders.

In hard times the abbot Misail sent him several times to Serbia to collect aid. His last journey was in October 1931, with icons for the new Iveron church in Belgrade. He died in the Russian infirmary at Pancevo on 2 December 1938 and was buried near the Iveron church in the new cemetery in Belgrade. Part of his archive, letters and works, is kept in the Rossikon archive.