Saint Paisius Velichkovsky of Neamț

After the usual beginning, we say:

KONTAKIA and OIKOI:

Kontakion 1

Among the Holy Fathers you were victorious, guiding us in this fallen world toward the fatherly embrace of the venerable ones of old, like a bridge over the abyss of unbelief. O brethren, weep not, but rejoice, for we have an unshaken guide:

• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Oikos 1

As an angel in the flesh you grew from tender infancy, ever having psalms on your lips and divine service in the beat of your heart. For your youthful purity, bringing glory to God, we sing these praises to you:

• Rejoice, wonder of angels and saints;
• Rejoice, for many were called, but you were chosen;
• Rejoice, you who sowed with tears, to reap with joy;
• Rejoice, you who from childhood loved purity and silence;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 2

Seeking to know that which surpasses knowledge, from your youth you desired to receive the monastic tonsure. So burning was your longing for God that all who saw you or heard of you were amazed at your zeal and love of stillness, and all magnified God, singing: Alleluia!

Oikos 2

In youth you received training in the city of Kiev and were taught about the things of this world, about pagan gods and philosophers, but desiring knowledge of the other world, you cast aside all teachings, striving to enter the angelic school of monasticism. Therefore we sing to you:

• Rejoice, for you rose as a chosen one from your lineage;
• Rejoice, for you wished to learn only the knowledge of God;
• Rejoice, you who desired to become a monk, aware of the ignorance of the hour of death;
• Rejoice, you who did not desire only wisdom of the tongue;
• Rejoice, you who suffered for the sake of Truth;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 3

With burning zeal you bent over the holy books of the Fathers, watering and planting each word with care in the warm soil of your heart. Leaving all your loved ones and the world, you began a long life of pilgrimages, seeking a spiritual teacher. Watering your path with tears, you ever sang to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 3

Pouring forth tears like precious myrrh and praying with a contrite heart, not knowing where to go, the longing for pilgrimage was kindled in your soul, and thus you departed from the city of Kiev, traveling with a sorrowful spirit as a poor stranger, seeking your heavenly homeland. From the Lord you received humility and right judgment, so we cry out to you these things:

• Rejoice, pilgrim of zeal and patience;
• Rejoice, you who watered the seed of God’s love with bitter tears;
• Rejoice, steadfast and unshaken lover of truth;
• Rejoice, for only in heaven did you end your arduous journey;
• Rejoice, pilgrim of Philokalic wisdom;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 4

Far and wide you sought through monasteries a spiritual father and an elder who would strive with you and lovingly open the other world to you, but you found none. Struggling against the storm of thoughts of doubt, you continued your earthly journey, ever crying out to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 4

Weeping inconsolably, your mother sank into deep sorrow at your desire to die monastically to this world, but you did not cease to follow the Fathers of old on the narrow path to heaven. Then, as if opening a book, the eyes of her heart were opened to the world of the Holy Fathers, guiding her also toward the monastic life. Therefore, now we sing these praises to you:

• Rejoice, you whom no chain of this world bound;
• Rejoice, you who freed your mother from the terror of this world;
• Rejoice, you who warmed the cold land of Russia with your fervent prayers;
• Rejoice, you who were tried in the furnace and shown to be purified;
• Rejoice, vessel of unceasing prayer;
• Rejoice, defender of the ways of the Fathers of old;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 5

Loving God in purity from your youth, O wondrous Paisius, together with your friends you made an unshaken vow: never to dwell in monasteries where there is glory, ease, and bodily comfort, but to follow the poverty of Christ. Thus you shook off all earthly weight, and, striking strongly with divine love, on wings of fasting and prayer you ascended toward the Sun of righteousness, crying: Alleluia!

Oikos 5

Having the eye of your soul without guile, as a true disciple of Christ you hated all hypocrisy, and crucifying yourself to the world, you cast aside every earthly good, to walk in the steps of the Master. Thus you became a venerable one among the venerable, guiding your disciples on the path you had trodden. By the hand, guide, we pray, us also, blinded by passions and crippled by sloth, but who with love sing to you:

• Rejoice, pure soul, untainted by the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees;
• Rejoice, true Israelite in whom is no guile;
• Rejoice, lover of the monastic form unadulterated;
• Rejoice, for you found what you sought with broken heart;
• Rejoice, you whose treasure and heart were with God in heaven;
• Rejoice, you who, clothed in rich wedding garments, had no need of the filthy rags of Mary in vain;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 6

Searching as far as the Holy Mountain of Athos in solitary life of hardships and torments, you dwelt there. You suffered hunger, thirst, sickness, and affliction, but nowhere was the longed-for bond between a son and his spiritual father to be found. Facing assaults of passions, demons, and even death, you never ceased to cry: Alleluia!

Oikos 6

Casting far away demonic deceit and becoming victorious over all temptations, you were visited according to God’s promise by the one who tonsured you into monasticism, by the Elder Basil, who, teaching you various monastic ways of life, departed, leaving you alone again. We, who are sons under your mantle, cry out to you thus:

• Rejoice, you who suffered in the body that you might cease from sin;
• Rejoice, great benefactor of Mount Athos;
• Rejoice, wonder of angels and demonic wound;
• Rejoice, struggler who advanced from strength to strength;
• Rejoice, for in your poverty you possessed the whole world;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 7

While leading a life of toil on the Holy Mountain of Athos, desiring to uncover the mystery hidden from the ages, a fellow struggler was sent to you by God. You labored with him to fulfill God’s commandments, and, being of one soul, each cutting off his own will before the other, you both became heirs of true love for God, crying: Alleluia!

Oikos 7

Having full peace in ascetic struggle, laboring, burning in spirit, and advancing in perfect humility and love of God, you were visited by many who wished to be your disciples, and against your will you welcomed all these your children who hoped for your loving guidance. May your sons be multiplied, that you may count even us, who sing to you:

• Rejoice, you who cut off your own will and attained the will of God;
• Rejoice, heir of the tradition of the Apostles;
• Rejoice, renewer of the common life;
• Rejoice, you who strove to take the Kingdom of heaven by effort;
• Rejoice, you who embraced the sorrowful heart with love;
• Rejoice, you who guided all with humble mind;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 8

Having obtained a flock of disciples who desired to leave the vain world and direct their thoughts toward divine things, you were chosen by God as shepherd of sons. Once you sought a spiritual father, but now you are the spiritual father who raises us to heaven, we who cry out to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 8

Strengthening the common life, you made the copying of the ancient writings of the Fathers the chief aim of the monastery. Ever seeking a dwelling where you might immerse yourself in the world of the great holy Venerable dwellers in the wilderness, you desired from your heart to prepare monastic manuscripts for printing, for the sake of future seekers of God and of us, who with repentance sing to you:

• Rejoice, loving father of the outcast and lonely;
• Rejoice, seer of God;
• Rejoice, long-suffering one;
• Rejoice, you who sacrificed yourself for your children;
• Rejoice, new dawn of monastic life;
• Rejoice, you who watered with your tears the slumbering tree of abbacy;
• Rejoice, gentle rebuker of souls whom you urged toward the gates of paradise;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 9

The angelic hosts in heaven unceasingly magnify you, for you brought so many into the monastic rank that your monastery was filled to overflowing. Thus you set out toward the land of Moldavia to establish a monastic city, ever teaching your sons in the prayer of the heart and in humility. So guide us also on the path of salvation, we who sing to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 9

Following the sufferings of Christ and treading in the footsteps of the venerable ones of old, you were a victorious leader in the spiritual warfare, having prayer as a sword and the writings of the Holy Fathers as eyes of the soul through which sight beyond this world was granted you. Therefore we cry to you:

• Rejoice, you who followed the steps of Saint Anthony the Great;
• Rejoice, rebuilder of the cenobitic life as in the time of Saint Pachomius the Great;
• Rejoice, you who revived the Thebaid of Egypt in the north;
• Rejoice, you in whom all Christian ascetic effort was encompassed;
• Rejoice, comforter of afflicted monks in the latter times;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 10

In the years of toil, night and day, with the pen of a copyist you composed the spiritual writing called the Philokalia. As your heart found rest in these spiritual teachings of unceasing inner prayer, silence, and unseen warfare, we also value your loving labor and cry out to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 10

Seeing the greatness of your labors and the grace given you by God, our hearts become helpless. How shall we, who have despised your commandments, have a part with you in the endless life? Have mercy on us, the ruined, who with grief cry out to you and say:

• Rejoice, you who dipped the copyist’s pen in the ink of humility;
• Rejoice, you who inscribed the words of the Holy Fathers on the tablet of your heart;
• Rejoice, you who obtained the mind of the Fathers;
• Rejoice, you who reaped the spiritual books like wheat fields;
• Rejoice, for like a bee gathering nectar, you collected the sweet sayings of the Fathers of old;
• Rejoice, gatherer of the “flowers of the field” of Philokalic wisdom;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 11

Tender songs I, though unworthy, offer to you, for whose heart can fail to sing softly to you with tears, hearing of your holy life; for even when your soul parted from your body after a whole life of peaceful bitterness, it did not cease to sing: Alleluia!

Oikos 11

Knowing beforehand the day of your swift departure to the other world, you did not lessen the labors of your ascetic struggle, but increased them out of love for God. You departed from us, united with God, O holy Father and teacher of ours. We, your spiritual sons, now left orphans, do not cease to sing:

• Rejoice, seer who foresaw when you would depart to the other world;
• Rejoice, for you lived and died for the one thing needful;
• Rejoice, for seeing your locks whitened with patristic wisdom, we bow to you;
• Rejoice, you who became one with God;
• Rejoice, you who sent disciples to sow the mind of the Fathers;
• Rejoice, flourishing seed of ancient wisdom;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 12

Though we have been deprived of seeing your sweet words and your radiant face, yet we have as sole comfort in afflictions your heavenly intercession and your eternal inheritance that comes for our warm embrace. Holding unshaken to the labor of love, we cry out to God: Alleluia!

Oikos 12

In your heavenly homeland you are now united forever with your beloved teachers, the Fathers of old. As you dwell in the world above the heavens of angels and saints, we pray you to draw near to the throne of Christ for the salvation of our souls, saying these songs to you:

• Rejoice, for we shall follow your footsteps that lead to the Kingdom of heaven;
• Rejoice, for God has revealed the beauty of your prayer;
• Rejoice, for you are not of this world;
• Rejoice, renewer of monasteries and inspiration of monks;
• Rejoice, you who rekindled the light of abbacy, leaving a living chain of disciples;
• Rejoice, for while on this earth, your mind and heart were in heaven;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

Kontakion 13

O most praised and most blessed Father Paisius, receive this humble prayer of ours, guarded by humility raised on the teachings of the Holy Fathers toward the heights of prayer, help us who do not know how to labor and how to pray. Have mercy on us, your broken disciples, teaching us love for good things and freeing us from future torments, all who sing to God: Alleluia! (this kontakion is said three times)

Then again the Oikos 1 is said: As an angel in the flesh you grew from tender infancy, ever having psalms on your lips and divine service in the beat of your heart. For your youthful purity, bringing glory to God, we sing these praises to you:

• Rejoice, wonder of angels and saints;
• Rejoice, for many were called, but you were chosen;
• Rejoice, you who sowed with tears, to reap with joy;
• Rejoice, you who from childhood loved purity and silence;
• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!

And Kontakion 1: Among the Holy Fathers you were victorious, guiding us in this fallen world toward the fatherly embrace of the venerable ones of old, like a bridge over the abyss of unbelief. O brethren, weep not, but rejoice, for we have an unshaken guide:

• Rejoice, holy Paisius, divine bridge to the Holy Fathers!