Pachomius the Hermit of Slatina

Pachomius was a hermit of the first half of the sixteenth century, a disciple of Saint Daniel the Hermit, at whose urging Slatina Monastery in Suceava was built. He is named in the Romanian Paterikon and venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; the sources available to us give no day of commemoration.

He lived in the valley of the Suha Mică stream, in the commune of Slatina, in a large quiet clearing north of the present monastery, called to this day Pachomius's Clearing. According to tradition he had taken his vows at Voroneț, twenty kilometres higher up, and had been one of the choicest disciples of Daniel the Hermit. Loving the ascetic life, he withdrew into the forests of the Suha valley, where there had been a small hermitage since the time of Stephen the Great.

The Paterikon says his struggle was exceptional: he prayed day and night, fasting, and took food only once every one or two days, after sunset. It is told that he received the gift of healing and foresight, and many believers from the villages sought him out for prayer.

In 1553, tradition says, he saw a wonder: every night toward Sundays and feast days he saw many lights burning in a large sycamore in the lower clearing and heard above it an angelic choir singing the troparion of the Transfiguration. As he prayed with tears, the Mother of God appeared to him in a dream and told him to go to Prince Alexander Lăpușneanu and urge him to build a monastery there. The prince listened and built Slatina Monastery between 1553 and 1559, with the altar placed on the spot of the sycamore.

Pachomius lived a little longer, passed to the Lord, and his body was laid beside the newly built church. The spring that bears his name, which never runs dry, was brought into the monastery.