Venerable · c. 292–348
Pachomius the Great
Venerable Pachomius the Great, Founder of Coenobitic Monasticism
New Calendar May 15 Old Calendar May 28
Why they are a saint
Pachomius the Great was an egyptian founder of communal (cenobitic) monasticism; wrote a rule that shaped East and West. The years given for this life are c. 292–348. Orthodox Christians remember him among the venerable monastic saints. The New Calendar feast is May 15.
Life
Saint Pachomius the Great, with Saints Anthony, Macarius and Euthymius, was a founder of cenobitic (common-life) monasticism. He was born in the Thebaid in Upper Egypt to pagan parents who gave him a good education. Conscripted at twenty into the army of Constantine, he was moved by the love of the local Christians who fed and cared for the recruits, and vowed to become a Christian.
After his discharge he was baptized and placed himself under the desert elder Palamon. After ten years of asceticism, at the ruins of the village of Tabennisi, he heard a voice telling him to found a monastery there, and with Palamon he built the first cell. Toward the end of his life he fell ill with a pestilence, cared for by his disciple Saint Theodore, and died around 348 at the age of fifty-three.
Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.
Traditional patronage
The cited source names no specific patronage.
Patronage / why chosen as patron
Patron of cenobitic monasticism, because he lived the monastic life of prayer and asceticism.
Prayer
O holy Pachomius the Great, pray to God for us.
A short general prayer to a saint, not a liturgical text. No public-domain troparion for this saint is included.
Do not confuse with Pachomius of Nerekhta; Athonite Pachomiuses.