Our Holy Father Paisius the Great
(June 19)

 

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He was an Egyptian by birth and by language. After a vision in a dream, his mother dedicated him to the service of God, and he went to St Pambo while still a youth. Pambo accepted him as a disciple, and he was a fellow-disciple there of St John the Dwarf, who wrote Paisius's life. To the joy of his spiritual father, Paisius piled labour upon labour, one ascetic feat upon another. The Prophet Jeremiah, whom he especially revered and read frequently, appeared to him often, and also the Lord Christ. `Peace be to thee, My beloved in whom 1 am well-pleased!', the Lord said to him. By God's great grace, Paisius had the particular gift of being able to abstain completely from food. He would often not eat bread for a fortnight, even more often for a week, and once, according to the testimony of John the Dwarf, he went for seventy days without tasting a thing. He waged a tremendous war against evil spirits, that sometimes appeared to him in their own form and sometimes as angels of light. But God's servant, filled with grace, never once let himself be deceived and led astray. He was a seer and a wonderworker famed throughout the whole of Egypt. He went to the Lord in the year 400. Isidore of Pelusium took his relics to his own monastery and buried them there.

 

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* From "The Prologue from Ochrid", by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic - Lazarica Press - Birmingham 1985
Four Book Edition - Translated by Mother Maria - Dates based on old church calendar.
Please see our calendar for conversion between old and new calendar dates.

 

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