Pakhomiy (Rusyn)

He was born in 1880 in the village of Generalshchino, Kursk Province.

In 1910, he arrived in the city of Verny (now Almaty), having lived as a novice in the Petropavlovsky Monastery in Chernigov Province for 3-4 years. After arriving in Verny, Father Pakhomiy joined the Issyk-Kul Monastery, where he served as a sexton and bell-ringer. He then took monastic vows and was ordained as a priest around 1914.

In the summer of 1916, a Kyrgyz uprising began in Semirechye. The rebels attacked the monastery, demanding that the monks prepare the monastery's valuables by a certain date, threatening violence if they refused. Some monks, including Father Pakhomiy, fled to the mountains or nearby villages, while the elderly monks stayed, entrusting themselves to God's will. On the appointed day, the Kyrgyz broke into the monastery, smashed icons, took church valuables, and massacred the remaining monks. The fleeing monks returned in the evening and buried the murdered monks in a mass grave the next morning.

After this incident, Father Pakhomiy moved to the city of Verny and then settled in the mountains near Aksay with monks Feognost, Seraphim, Anatoly, and Irakliy. In August 1921, the five monks went to the city of Verny to the St. Nicholas Church for the feast of St. Panteleimon the Healer. Two of them, including Father Pakhomiy, stayed in the city, while the other three returned to the skete. On August 11, 1921, a tragedy occurred: Hieromonks Seraphim and Feognost were shot by Red Army looters. The surviving monks, Father Pakhomiy, Father Irakliy, and Father Anatoly, did not return to the skete.

After 1921, Father Pakhomiy lived secretly for a while with the wanderer Viktor and the schema-monk Tikhon in a skete on Mount Gorelnik in the Medeu area. He occasionally visited the city, staying with nuns and maintaining a quiet demeanor.

In the late 1920s, during intense persecutions, Father Pakhomiy left Medeu and lived in the city with various people. He secretly conducted services, weddings, and funerals at home, often visiting the Aksay cemetery with the nuns.

Father Pakhomiy described his life during this period as follows (from investigative materials): "In 1921, those monks (Fathers Seraphim and Feognost) were killed, living in the mountains was frightening, I stayed another year, and in 1923, I moved to the city of Almaty. Occasionally, I served in the cathedral, now housing the Kazakhstan Museum. I lived this way until 1926, then moved to Tashkent. In Tashkent, I tried to find a job but failed, so after a year, I returned to Almaty. I lived in an apartment, helped with household chores, occasionally served, and thus existed.

In 1928, a monk named Tikhon, whom I knew, started building a hut in the mountains on Mohnataya Hill. I visited him, liked it, and started building my hut. By the end of 1928, I moved to the mountains. Soon, Tikhon accidentally burned our huts, forcing me to dig a dugout. I did not live there permanently. I often went to the city or stayed with nuns Magdalina, Tatyana, Alexandra, and Evsevia, who were also on Mohnataya Hill. In 1930, the nuns were offered to join a collective farm, but they refused, gave their property to the forestry, and moved to the city. I stayed in my dugout. That same year, I moved with the nuns to Jagal-Abad, where we settled in the mountains. There, I built a hut, lived with Magdalina, and Tatyana built her hut separately, 15 versts from us. From Jagal-Abad, I returned to Almaty."

In 1935, Father Pakhomiy was arrested and imprisoned in the Almaty prison, where he endured torment and was executed in 1936.

By the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, on August 11, 1993, local veneration was established for the New Martyrs - Hieromonks Seraphim and Feognost and those who suffered with them in the Kazakh land, including Venerable Martyr Pakhomiy. At the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000, a decision was made to canonize these saints for universal veneration.