New Martyr Paisius of Trnava

Paisius was igumen (abbot) of the Annunciation Monastery in Trnava, near Čačak in Serbia, who was martyred under Ottoman authority in 1814. He is commemorated on December 17 together with the deacon Avakum, with whom he suffered. The synaxarion remembers him among the Serbian New Martyrs who refused to deny Christ during the violent reprisals that followed the failure of the First Serbian Uprising.

According to the tradition, his martyrdom belongs to the aftermath of the collapse of Karageorge's revolt in 1813, when Ottoman forces undertook severe reprisals against the Serbs. Paisius and the monks of Trnava became involved in a subsequent rebellion led by Hadji-Prodan Gligorijević, which broke out on the Feast of the Cross (September 14) but was crushed by the Turks.

After the rising was put down, Paisius and the deacon Avakum were among the prisoners sent to Suleiman Pasha in Belgrade. The captives were offered their freedom if they would convert to Islam; some agreed, but the majority, including Paisius, refused to deny Christ and were condemned to death. The account relates that as Avakum sang in the prison cell, Paisius prayed.