Pachomius of Gledin

Holy Hierarch Pachomius of Gledin (Penciu), Bishop of Roman, was a great worker of the Jesus Prayer, a guide of souls and a lover of books. He was born in the village of Gledin in the Bistrița-⁠Năsăud region about 1660 (by other accounts in 1671), of the priest Euthymius and the priest's wife Anna, and was baptized Peter.

The monk of Neamț

In 1697 he was tonsured a monk at Neamț Monastery. He followed the advice of the great spiritual fathers there and in a few years reached the stature of his teachers. He was ordained priest, became a renowned confessor and ecclesiarch, and in 1702 the community chose him as abbot. As abbot he gathered the monks scattered in the metochia and forests by the wars and formed a community of over three hundred monks, appointed good confessors, weekly confession and services according to the typikon, had writings of the Holy Fathers translated, and encouraged hesychast life around Neamț. Between 1704 and 1706 he went on pilgrimage to the Kiev Caves Lavra, where he met Saint Demetrius of Rostov. Back in Moldavia, he refused to resume the abbacy and withdrew into stillness in the forests around Mount Chiriacu, where he lived as a hermit for two years.

The bishop of Roman

On 18 December 1706 he was elected bishop of Roman and was ordained a bishop on 18 January 1707. He shepherded until 10 April 1714, when he withdrew from the see and founded in the wilderness the Pocrov Skete, dedicated to the Protection of the Mother of God. In 1717, because of the hardships of the times, he went to Transylvania, then to Kiev, and spent the rest of his life at the Caves Lavra in prayer and scholarly labours. He died in 1724 and was buried in the chapel of Saint Stephen of the lavra.

Saint Pachomius loved books and sought to plant the love of reading and writing in his disciples, supplying Pocrov and other churches with the books needed for services. He was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in November 2006, and the proclamation was held at Gledin on 14 April 2007. He is commemorated on 14 April (new style).