Pajsije of Janjevo

Saint Pajsije Janjevac Пајсије Јањевац
Icon of Serbian Patriarch Pajsije Janjevac
Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch
Born	1542? Janjevo, Ottoman Empire, (modern day Kosovo)
Died	2 November 1647 (aged 104–105?)
Church	Serbian Orthodox Church
Metropolis	Serbian Patriarchate of Peć
See	Patriarchal Monastery of Peć
Installed	1614
Term ended	1647
Predecessor	Jovan
Successor	Gavrilo I
Personal details
Nationality	Rum Millet (Ottoman)
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox Christian
Occupation	Spiritual leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Pajsije of Janjevo (Serbian: Пајсије Јањевац / Pajsije Janjevac; Janjevo, 1542? – Peć, 2 November 1647) was the Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch from 1614 to 1647, seated at the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć.^[1] He was also a writer, poet, composer, educator, and diplomat.^[2]

The greatest accomplishment of Serbian literature and theology happened under Patriarch Pajsije who inspired the revival of hagiographical literature and entered into theological debates with Pope Gregory XV and particularly with Pope Urban VIII concerning the question of the procession of the Holy Spirit. He patronized art on a grand scale. He funded works by woodcarvers of iconostasis and icon painters during his entire reign as patriarch from 1614 to 1648. His travels took him to Moscow in 1622, Constantinople in 1641, and Jerusalem in 1646.

He was born in Janjevo, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire, the son of a clergyman, Dimitrije. He was educated in his birth town where the wealthy folks of Janjevo had their school which he attended regularly and continued his education at the seminary of Gračanica monastery. He was a pupil of Jovan Kantul. Early in life he showed that he was a great "book lover" and a very cultured man who took care to preserve manuscripts scattered about various monasteries. He was a writer. Patriarch Pajsije states in one of his works, "Service to Tsar Uroš" (Stefan Uroš V), he put in it "Troparion" and "Kontakion"—writing first the Sticheron of the small vespers .... "all in the order required by liturgy."