Pachomius the Serb

Pachomius the Serb (Пахомий Серб, also known as Pachomius Logothete) was a fifteenth century hagiographer in the employ of the Russian Orthodox Church, most notably the archbishops of Novgorod, the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, and the grand princely and metropolitan courts in Moscow. [G. M. Prokhorov, “Pakhomii Serb,” in D. S. Likhachev, "Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi", vol. 2, Pervaia polovina XIV-XVI v., pt. 2, pp. 167-177.]

He is believed to have written eleven saint's lives (zhitie), including those of Metropolitan Peter of Moscow, Stephen of Perm, Ilia (Ioann) of Novgorod, Moisei of Novgorod, Evfimii II of Novgorod, Iona of Novgorod, Prince Mikhail of Chernigov, Varlaam of Khutyn, Sergei of Radonezh, and others. He also wrote fourteen services, including those for Evfimii II, The Mother of God of the Sign in Novgorod, Metropolitan Aleksei of Moscow, Anthony of the Kiev-Caves Monastery, and Metropolitan Iona of Moscow. [Ibid., 168.]

He arrived in Novgorod at the end of the 1430s or beginning of the 1440s, during the archiepiscopate of Evfimii II (1429-1458) and, under Evfimii's aegis, he composed the Life of Varlaam of Khutyn, the founder of the Khutyn Monastery, as well as the "Tale of the Journey of Ioann (Il'ia, Archbishop of Novgorod 1165-1186) on a Devil to Jerusalem." [Ibid., 167.] He then traveled to the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra north of Moscow, where he composed the Life of Sergei of Radonezh, the founder of that monastery. He returned to Novgorod under Arcbhishop Iona (1458-1470), and composed the Lives of several Novgorodian bishop-saints, including those of Il'ia (Ioann) and EvfimiiII. He later composed the Life of Moisei, Archbishop of Novgorod sometime shortly after 1484. He died sometime thereafter. [Ibid. 167-168.]

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