Photinus of Volokolamsk

Holy Photinus of Volokolamsk (Photius) was an elder of the Saint Joseph monastery at Volokolamsk, a disciple of Cassian the Barefoot and a spiritual writer of the sixteenth century. The Russian Church honours him as a venerable father, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow.

Born Theodore, he came from the Kyiv region. Until 1500 he lived at Putivl, in the service of the last ruling prince of the town, Bogdan Glinsky, as tutor to his son Vladimir. When Grand Prince Ivan III took Putivl in 1500, Photius was taken captive with the prince and his family and came to the boyar Yuri Zamyatnin. After several years of living in honour he withdrew from the world and settled at the Volokolamsk monastery, where he received monastic vows from its founder, Joseph († 1515).

Under the guidance of the elder Cassian the Barefoot he learned the rule set down by Joseph and the rules of monastic life, and soon became one of the notable brothers, known for his learning and heavy ascetic labours, but also for a humility that made him flee precedence. He was also remembered as a diligent copyist of books. Few of his writings have reached us: the service for Saint Joseph, which he presented to Metropolitan Macarius, a teaching against foul language, and a consoling epistle to an elder, Alexandra. He died on 9 March 1554, having spent the last twenty-⁠five years of his life in the monastery without leaving it. His disciple Vassian Kosoy wrote his life.