Paul of Rossikon

Paul of Rossikon was a Russian hieroschemamonk, born at Kaluga, abbot of the Skete of St Elias and the first Russian abbot of St Panteleimon Monastery after the return of the Russians. He reposed on 2 August 1840. He is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

He was born in a family of rich merchants in Kaluga, with the name Peter. From childhood he wished to become a monk, but his parents made him marry; after three years of marriage he had two daughters. One night, after long prayer, he told his wife with tears that all the goods of the world are passing and that they must serve God; she let him go. He went first to Jerusalem, then to Athos, and entered the Skete of St Elias. For ten years his wife wept and waited; learning that he had become a monk and hieromonk on Athos, she entered a convent in Kaluga as the nun Pavla. For eighteen years he lived in the skete in complete obedience. In the time of war the brethren scattered; after eight years of wandering, Paul and the abbot Parthenius returned with difficulty to the skete. In 1837 plague struck the skete and nearly all the brethren, including the abbot; Paul was the only one who took no remedy against the plague. After the epidemic he spent forty days in quarantine, then brethren from all the monasteries raised from Xeropotamou a part of the Wood of the Holy Cross. He was elected abbot, gathered up to forty brethren and set up the cenobitic life in the skete.

In the autumn of 1839 the Greeks of St Panteleimon asked him to come to them, with the blessing of the confessor Arsenius. On 21 November 1839 he entered the old Russian inheritance, the monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, and consecrated the church of St Mitrophan of Voronezh. He lived there eight months, astonishing the Greeks by his humility and patience. He also endured persecution: after the Russians were driven out of the skete, the hieromonk Acacius, his greatest persecutor, became abbot, but when Acacius squandered the skete's property and was arrested, Paul covered for him and said everything was in its place, which amazed all Athos. He fell ill on 28 July 1840 and on 2 August, during Matins in his cell, as Ps 117 was sung, he died sitting, head bowed on his chest, as in sweet sleep. After three years, by Athonite custom, his bones were dug up: they were yellow as wax and gave off fragrance.