VELICHKOVSKY, PAISII

VELICHKOVSKY, PAISII, monk, translator, St. (1722–1794). A student at the Kievan Academy, he was disappointed with spiritual conditions there. He left after he refused to study, scorning both pagan mythology and higher Latin studies, and complaining that the Church Fathers (q.v.) were little read. He began a search for true monastic life, which brought him to Mt. Athos (q.v.) where he lived seventeen years, founding his own monastery on the ancient tradition of inner prayer (q.v.). He did not reject knowledge, but discerned what knowledge was valuable to the Christian life. He later founded monasteries in Moldavia at Dragomirna, Sekul, and Niamets using the 14th c. rule of Byzantine monasticism (qq.v.).

While on Athos he began collecting and checking Slavic translations of ascetical works. He was an exacting translator and continued his work after resettlement in the Niamets monastery in Moldavia, which became a literary and theological center concerned with spiritual enlightenment and “intellectual construction.” In terms of writing, Velichkovsky depended on the literary style of Nilus Sorsky and continued Sorsky’s interrupted work. His disciples focused on translations from Greek, but included some from Latin. Velichkovsky’s translation of the Philokalia (q.v.) was a major event in Russian monasticism. This and the “Paisii movement” served as a catalyst for things to come among the Slavophiles (q.v.) of Russia, a return to traditional sources.