Paisius of Humor

Paisius was a hieromonk and abbot of Humor Monastery from 1528, in the time of Peter Rareș, builder of the Church of Saint George at Humor, raised in 1530. He passed to the Lord toward the middle of the sixteenth century. 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 struggled at Humor from youth, day and night, with fasting, prayer and humble obedience. He was a skilled confessor, a teacher and a good calligrapher. For this life the community elected him abbot in 1528. Peter Rareș, prince of Moldavia, learned of his way of life and made him counsellor and spiritual father, listening to his advice and doing many things with his blessing.

Seeing that the community was growing and the old church no longer sufficed, Paisius resolved to build a new church dedicated to the Holy Great Martyr George, with the prince's will and help and at the expense of the chancellor Teodor Bubuiog. The work began and was completed in 1530, at the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Around the church stone cells were built for more than forty monks, and in the monastery he founded a school for monks and parish priests, with teachers of Greek and Slavonic and calligraphers. Being himself a good miniaturist, he wished to paint the church inside and out: in 1535 the painter Toma of Suceava adorned it with paintings of great spiritual value.

In 1538, when Peter Rareș was driven out to Ciceu and the monasteries were plundered, Paisius hid the church's treasures in the forest, and the Tetraevangelion given by Stephen the Great he sent by two monks to Ciceu, for the help and comfort of the exiled prince. Four years later, restored to the throne, Peter Rareș entrusted it again to Abbot Paisius. After many labours and patient endurance Paisius gave up his soul into God's hands toward the middle of the century, leaving numerous disciples.