Pachomius of Kenozero

Venerable Pachomius of Kenozero was a disciple and fellow ascetic of Saint Alexander of Oshevensk. After Alexander's repose he left the monastery and withdrew to live in silence, in strict fasting and prayer, on the river Kena near Lake Kenozero, in the Kargopol region. Local people began to come to him for advice and a blessing, and in time many monks settled around his cell. They built a church in honor of the Transfiguration and founded the Transfiguration Monastery on the Kena, no later than the beginning of the sixteenth century, or possibly at the end of the fifteenth. Pachomius also set up a hospital for infirm monks. The brethren, with their abbot, worked the land: they sowed wheat, fished and cleared forest for fields.

In 1508 Saint Anthony of Siya was tonsured at Kena. Pachomius did not entrust him to another monk but took him under his own care and guided him in the ascetic life. When the time came for Anthony to leave for solitude, Pachomius blessed him, saying: "May the Lord bless you, my child; may the Lord's will be done."

Pachomius died at an advanced age in the monastery he had founded, in 1515 according to OCA (other sources give 1525). Miracles began at his tomb. In 1800 the Transfiguration church burned down, and of all that was in it only three planks over the saint's grave remained untouched. He is commemorated on the Saturday after Theophany, around 7 January (new style; 20 January on the old calendar).