Panteleimon Ovsyannikov

Panteleimon Ovsyannikov was a Russian schemamonk, an icon painter at St Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, born in a peasant family in Voronezh province and arriving on Athos in 1841. He reposed on 9 September 1844. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Grigory Petrovich Ovsyannikov in the world, he was received at Rossikon in 1841 and tonsured into the schema. His obedience was the icon workshop, where he painted the old refectory. It is not known how he learned painting or came to be a monk; he seems to have gone to Athos after meeting the hieroschemamonk Sergius Vesnin at Odessa, who in his letters calls him a close friend who shared his joys and sorrows, the pains of his heart and poetic leisure, and part of his journeys on Athos. Sergius recalls how they sang together in the cross-⁠shaped refectory, with only the faces of the saints painted on the walls to listen, and expresses the hope of rejoicing with him where there is no sickness or sorrow but life and joy without end. At the end he was close to death from illness.