Ηegumen / Abbot
He was born on June 29, 1872, in the village of Zalipayevka, Fedorovskaya volost, in the Maloarkhangelsk province, to a peasant family of Timofey Arzhanikh. He was named Pavel at baptism. From a young age, he helped his father with the household, worked as a shepherd, and attended paramedic courses. In 1898, he was discharged from the army and became a paramedic at the Zhytomyr provincial hospital while studying at the Volyn paramedic school. In 1900, he went to Optina Pustyn, where he spent about seven years as a novice. The abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Ksenofont, tonsured him into the mantle with the name Panteleimon. In 1909, he was ordained as a hierodeacon, and in 1911 – as a hieromonk. He served as a paramedic in the monastery hospital.
In 1914, he was elected treasurer of the monastery and served in the churches of Likhvin, Meshchovsk, and Odoev. In 1925, he arrived in Kozelsk and began serving in the Nikolsk Church. On June 26, 1926, he was elevated to igumen, but after the monastery was closed, he returned to Kozelsk. In Kozelsk, a monastery without walls was formed, where monks from closed monasteries lived.
On June 9, 1930, a clash occurred in Kozelsk between peasants and the police, after which the authorities arrested some monks, including Igumen Panteleimon, accusing them of inciting a rebellion. On November 27, 1930, the OGPU troika sentenced him to ten years of imprisonment, later reduced to five years. After his release, he worked as a psalmist in the Vvedensky Church in Elets.
On September 16, 1937, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Lipetsk prison. During interrogations, he did not admit guilt for the charges brought against him. On November 15, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to execution. Igumen Panteleimon (Arzhanikh) was shot on November 29, 1937, and buried in a common unmarked grave.
