Pachomius of Pechenga

Saint Pachomius of Pechenga, a venerable martyr, was a hierodeacon in Pechenga Monastery in the far north of Russia, and was killed with the hieromonk Joseph and the other brethren of the community in 1589. He is venerated locally as a martyr of obedience and faith.

The names of the two martyrs, Joseph and Pachomius, were not preserved in the Arkhangelsk Paterikon, where they are mentioned without names. They were found only in the late nineteenth century, when a list of the brothers killed in 1589 was discovered in an archive in Norway. Pechenga Monastery had been founded by Saint Tryphon, and its monks lived in strict obedience, with the fear of God.

On 9 December 1589 an armed band burst into the church and killed everyone there. Some they cut in half, from others they hacked off hands and feet. The abbot Gurias and a deacon were tortured in various ways over the monastery's treasure, wounded with weapons and burned with fire. The martyrs gave no answer and only looked up to heaven. The attackers, more enraged, cut them to pieces with swords, desecrated and plundered the church, and burned the severed bodies. So ended the history of the monastery of Saint Tryphon and his spiritual children.

The hieromonk Joseph and the hierodeacon Pachomius are honoured for pastoral service and monastic obedience carried even to death, and for the labour of martyrdom.