Archimandrite of the Nyamet Monastery in Moldova. He was born in 1722 in the city of Poltava in the family of an archpriest, joined the Lubech monastery at the age of 17, moved to the Treistena monastery in Moldova, from there to the Kerkul monastery, which was distinguished by the special rigor of monastic life.
Then the monk moved to Mount Athos, where he founded a special monastic community – the monastery of St. Nicholas. Elijah. In 1758, at the age of 36, he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1763, the Monk Paisius with 64 monks moved to Moldavia, to Wallachia, at the request of the local ruler, for a better arrangement of monastic life in this country and was appointed abbot of the Dragomirna monastery.
In three years, the number of the Dragomir brotherhood has tripled. The organizer of the brotherhood, Father Paisius, wrote and introduced the charter according to the rank of St. Peter. Basil the Great, Theodosius the Great, Theodore the Studite and Mount Athos. The main ideas of this charter are: non-possessiveness, cutting off the will and obedience, intelligent prayer and reading books, incessant needlework and household deanery (an exemplary hospital, a hospice, church art, etc.). The land on which the Dragomirna monastery was located, after the Russian-Turkish war (1774), passed to Catholic Austria. Abba Paisii, not seeing the possibility of spiritual peace for the Eastern Church in the new state, decided to leave and take the entire brotherhood with him – 350 people. The lord Gregory Gika and Metropolitan Gabriel provided them with a poor Sekulsky monastery secluded in the mountains in the name of the Beheading of the head of John the Baptist. When the brethren multiplied and the Monk Paisius began to ask for help in building cells, he was ordered to move with the brethren to the richest Nyamet monastery, which he did in 1779, leaving part of the brethren in the Sect.
The Monk Paisii arranged his life in the Nyamet monastery in the image of Dragomirna and Sekula – a dormitory, intelligent prayer, correspondence and reading of patristic books, daily (morning and evening) confession of thoughts to confessors. The flock of the monk multiplied, there were monks of more than 10 nationalities, and by 1790 their number had increased to 10 thousand people. At that time it was the most crowded monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 1790, the Monk Paisius was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, continuing to care for Sekul and other surrounding monasteries and monasteries.
Throughout the time of his old age exploits in Moldavian monasteries, Abba Paisii taught the brethren intelligent prayer, continuing the united line of the fathers of the Philokalia of St. Gregory of Sinai, St. Gregory Palamas and St. Nile Sorsky. The Monk Paisius cited numerous proofs and testimonies of patristic veneration of intelligent prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me," which is both a prayer and a confession of faith. "Smart-hearted prayer is for the successful, for the average – singing, that is, ordinary church hymns, for beginners – obedience and work," the elder taught.
The elder's hard-working life was coming to its earthly end. Having been ill before his death, he passed away in peace in 1794, on November 15, having lived 72 years. The Monk Paisii was buried in the Nyamets monastery in the cathedral church of the Ascension of the Lord.
Russian Russian translations of the patristic works, which for a long time were the only ones in Russian literature, were read everywhere. So, he published: "The Love of Kindness", the works of St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Theodore the Studite, St. Barsonofy, St. Gregory Palamas, St. Maximus the Confessor, "Rapturous Classes" – a collection of the works of St. John Chrysostom and much more. St. Paisius is the reviver in Russia, after St. Sergius, of the school of seniority, which throughout the XIX century and later brought its blessed fruits in the field of salvation of church children in the Glinskaya and Optina deserts and other monasteries of the Russian Church.