Precisely 400 years ago, the great ascetic of piety and Orthodox enlightener, Archimandrite of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, Yelysei Pletenetskyi (1599-1624), departed to the Lord. We present to your attention an essay about His Reverence’s deeds for the benefit of the Church.

Yelysei (Oleksandr Fomych Pletenetskyi), monastic name in schema Euthymius (circa 1554 – October 29, 1624, OS, Kyiv), was the archimandrite of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery. Fr. Yelysei’s parents lived in Lviv, where his father was a deacon. His ancestors served Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozky, under whose patronage the Pletenetskyi family received nobility status.

Yelysei (Pletenetskyi) was elected archimandrite of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery in 1599, during the challenging period of church division caused by the Union of Brest.

He avoided the transfer of the monastery and its estates to the Kyiv Uniate Metropolitan Ipaty Potiy.

The newly appointed archimandrite initiated internal reforms at the Pechersk Monastery to strengthen and preserve it as an ideological centre of the Orthodox faith. Zacharias (Kopystenskyi), the archimandrite of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, called him “a father not only for the Lavra but for the entire Ukrainian people.” Throughout his life, Archimandrite Yelysei (Pletenetskyi) sought to revive and build new strongholds of the Orthodox faith, including the Kitaiv Desert and the Holy Ascension Florivsky Convent.

The first significant action undertaken by Yelysei Pletenetskyi as archimandrite of the Pechersk Monastery was the restoration of the “coenobitic rule” according to the order of St. Basil the Great in the Lavra. He also cared for improving the living conditions of the monks. Archimandrite Yelysei repaired and restored the main monastery church, the Dormition Cathedral.

Archimandrite Yelysei became known for his charitable activities. By his order, bread and hot meals were provided to anyone who asked from the monastery’s stores. A kitchen for the elderly poor was also built at the Lavra.

Printing was one of the most effective means of defending the Orthodox faith, in the opinion of the archimandrite. He laid the foundations for organising theology and liturgical practice, later continued by Saint Peter Mohyla.

In 1612, in the town of Radomyshl, Yelysei (Pletenetskyi) established the first paper mill in Central Ukraine. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, this paper production fully met the needs of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra printing house.

During his tenure, the monastery engaged in active educational activities, built a school, established a printing press, and began publishing educational and polemical literature.

The printing press he established in 1615 at the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery published not only church and theological literature but also secular works (including poetry and educational books). Books were published in Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin, and Old East Slavic. Pletenetskyi organised the 1615 Epiphany Brotherhood school, which later became part of the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium.

Archimandrite Yelysei (Pletenetskyi) is associated with the emergence of a church-educational and cultural centre at the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery. The Pechersk archimandrite gathered around him prominent Orthodox religious and educational figures of the time.

Books published with the participation of his circle were distributed not only in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but also in many Slavic countries.

In 1620, Yelysei Pletenetskyi, along with Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi and with the support of the Cossacks, persuaded Patriarch Theophanes III of Jerusalem to restore the Orthodox hierarchy, which King Sigismund III had abolished. The negotiations likely took place at the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery.

The official restoration of the Orthodox hierarchy was achieved in 1632 by another member of Pletenetskyi’s circle, Saint Peter Mohyla.

Before his death, Archimandrite Yelysei Pletenetskyi took the schema under the name Euthymius.

The devout monk passed away on October 29 (OS), 1624.

He was buried on February 17, 1625, in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Monastery, which he had restored, near the tomb of the Lithuanian Prince Skirgaila and Princess Eupraxia, the sister of Volodymyr Monomakh. The burial site has not survived to this day.

The epitaph mentioned that Archimandrite Yelysei “protected the Great Church, which had fallen into decay, from ruins, returned the monastery’s ancient lands, and established new ones, providing for them in full and appointing priests everywhere. He chose his deputy, Hieromonk Zacharias Kopystenskyi, as his successor.” Kopystenskyi delivered a eulogy over the deceased (“funeral speech”). After Pletenetskyi’s death, he took the position of Lavra’s archimandrite and led the printing house founded by his predecessor.