Pachomius of Nerekhta

Venerable Pachomius of Nerekhta (in the world Yakov Ignatiev) was an abbot of the Russian Church, the first abbot of the restored Constantine monastery in Vladimir and founder of a monastery of monks at Nerekhta. He was born at the beginning of the fourteenth century, at Vladimir, and died on 23 March 1384. He is remembered on 15 May, the day of his namesake, Saint Pachomius the Great (28 May on the new calendar), on 21 March, the day of his glorification, and in the synaxes of the saints of Vladimir and of Kostroma.

Life

He was born at Vladimir, in the family of a priest. At seven he was put to learn the holy books and, having gained skill in Scripture, he began to show zeal for the church of God. After his father's death, when he was twelve, Yakov, with his mother's blessing, went to the Nativity of the Mother of God monastery near Vladimir, and at twenty-⁠one he received monastic tonsure, with the name Pachomius, in honour of Venerable Pachomius the Great. After some years he was ordained deacon by Bishop Alexis (Byakont) of Vladimir, the future metropolitan of Kyiv. In 1352 he was ordained hieromonk, and in 1365, at the restoration of the Constantine monastery, he was appointed its first abbot.

While setting the monastery in order, Pachomius desired solitude and soon went to a deserted place near Nerekhta, where he built a church of the Holy Trinity. He fell asleep in deep old age, on 23 March 1384.

Relics and veneration

On 6 May 1675 the relics of Venerable Pachomius were found incorrupt, but were left beneath the floor. Because of the many miracles, veneration of the saint spread quickly in the neighbourhood. In the Trinity cathedral a side chapel was arranged in his name and a stone tomb made over the relics. On 17 February 1993 the administration of the Kostroma region gave the buildings of the former Pachomius monastery to the diocese of Kostroma. Today the Trinity church is entirely restored and adorned, and in the monastery a new building for the sisters and an almshouse have been built besides. The relics of Venerable Pachomius are one of the most important holy treasures of the renewed monastery and attract many pilgrims.

The troparion praises him as one who, rejecting the rumours of life, found stillness in the wilderness like a bird and, settling there, set up the monastery of the Holy Trinity and, diligent in prayers and labours, flowered like a phoenix. The kontakion says that, while he lived in stillness in the wilderness, seeking the Lord, God did not leave him alone, but at His command a few brethren gathered to him, with whom, praying, he raised the most venerable church of the Trinity.