Venerable Martyr Pachomius

Life

From Little Russia by birth. In his youth the Tatars captured him and sold him as a slave to a Turkish tanner. He spent twenty-seven years in slavery in the town of Usaki in Asia Minor. He was forcibly converted to Islam. He went to the Holy Mountain, was tonsured a monk, and spent twelve years at the Monastery of Saint Paul. He resolved to suffer for Christ. His spiritual elder Joseph accompanied him to Usaki, where Pachomius appeared before his former master as a Christian in monastic garb. The Turks subjected him to tortures, then cast him into prison, and finally beheaded him on May 8, 1730, on the very day of the Ascension. From his blood and relics many miracles occurred. He was buried on the island of Patmos in the Church of Saint John the Theologian. Thus this peasant from Little Russia became a martyr and crown-bearer in the kingdom of Christ.