The Holy Martyr Pakhomii

Commemorated on May 7

The Holy Martyr Pakhomii was born in Little Russia. He had the name Prokopii and in childhood he was taken captive by Tatars, who sold him over into slavery to a certain Turk in the city of Usaki (Philadelphia in Anatolia). He spent 17 years in servitude, enduring patiently all the insults and abuse. Gaining his freedom, for 12 years he asceticised on Holy Mount Athos under the guidance of the starets-elder priestmonk Joseph, who tonsured him into monasticism with the name Pakhomii. Pakhomii afterwards resettled into the Kausokali skete-monastery, where he lived under the guidance of the starets-elder Akakios. Saint Pakhomii then returned to Usaki, where he openly confessed himself a Christian. The Turks arrested him and began to demand his acceptance of Mahometanism. Saint Pakhomii refused and was beheaded in the city of Usaki on the day of the Ascension of the Lord, 7 May 1780. The relics of the holy martyr rest on the island of Patmos, in the monastery of the holy Apostle John the Theologian.