Orthodox Saints and Ascetics of the Last Times1

The Athonite Holy Elders bequeathed to us:
"KEEP THE LIGHT WITHIN YOURSELF AND SHINE FOR OTHERS!"

The Healing Prayer of the Hierarchs of the 20th Century

"...But even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day." (2 Cor. 4:16).
"One need only look at a sick person, or one afflicted by some other misfortune, to be convinced of how salutary—at times—illness and adversity are for us here." – The Righteous Saint John of Kronstadt.
"Physical illness begets humility of soul, just as the Apostle [Paul] says: 'Even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day….' The only means of alleviating sorrows are tears, patience, and prayer." – The Venerable Alexei Shepelev.

   By virtue of their pious lives, steadfast faith, and love for God and humanity, the saints and ascetics of recent times have been deemed worthy of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit—just as the Holy Apostles were. Through their prayers, the Lord performed numerous miracles that strengthened the faith of the sick; moreover, those estranged from the faith—and even non-believers—upon witnessing these miracles, embraced Holy Baptism.
   In this section, we present various testimonies confirming the power of the saints' prayers, alongside brief biographies of these holy servants of God. The Lord granted healing to many sick individuals for whom these saints interceded during their lifetimes. Miraculous healings continued unabated for decades following their blessed repose; indeed, countless testimonies have been left by those who requested memorial services, prayed for the repose of the saints' souls, implored them to act as intercessors before the Lord, or—with faith—anointed their afflicted body parts with oil from the lamps burning before the saints' holy relics, thereby receiving healing. It was on the basis of these very testimonies that these holy figures were ultimately glorified.
   Accounts of physicians unable to help certain ailing individuals, individuals, who, upon learning of their patients’ recoveries, acknowledged these events as miracles, and inspired those far removed from the faith to embrace the Orthodox Faith.

From the recollections of the spiritual children of Saint John and about healings received through the prayers of St. John

   From the recollections of the spiritual children of St. John: “Father John was a man of rare prayer. He would become so immersed in the texts of the prayers that it seemed as though he were conversing with God, the Most Holy Mother of God, and the angels...”
   “In 1939, my faith began to waver; I decided to stop attending church and instead go visit some acquaintances. My path took me past the cathedral, and there, from within the church, I heard singing. I entered the church. Bishop John was officiating. The altar was open. The Bishop intoned the prayer: ‘Come, eat; this is My Blood... for the remission of sins,’ after which he knelt down and made a profound prostration.”
   “I saw the Chalice containing the Holy Gifts uncovered, and at that moment—following the words of the Bishop—a small flame descended from above into the Chalice. The flame was shaped like a tulip, though larger in size. Never in my life had I imagined that I would actually witness the Consecration of the Gifts taking place through fire. My faith was rekindled. The Lord revealed to me the depth of the Bishop’s faith, and I felt ashamed of my own faint-heartedness.” – Mother Augusta.
   “I saw how his face would sometimes literally be transfigured during the Liturgy—especially during the days of Great Lent—shining with an unearthly light, while his eyes, always filled with divine love, radiated an inexpressible joy inaccessible to sinners; and this was a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. But what was most remarkable was his gift for seeing into the human heart and drawing it toward Christ. After all, were it not for this righteous man, I would never even have conceived of the possibility of undertaking pastoral ministry in the Church.” – Father George Larin.
   “Once, in Shanghai, Vladyka John was summoned to the bedside of a dying child whose condition—according to the doctors—was hopeless. Upon entering the house, Vladyka John headed straight for the room where the sick boy lay, even though no one had yet had the chance to show him the way. Without even examining the child, Vladyka prostrated himself before an icon in the corner of the room and prayed for a long time. Then, assuring the relatives that the child would recover he quickly departed. And indeed, by morning, the child’s condition had improved, and he soon made a full recovery—without any medical intervention.” – Dr. A.F. Baranov, Erie, Pennsylvania.
   Through the prayers of this great ascetic, many people were healed. Believers regarded him as a saint during his lifetime. After he reposed in the Lord—and was soon thereafter glorified—many continued to receive healing by seeking his prayerful intercession. Even today, many receive healing according to their faith, often shortly after anointing the area of affliction with oil from the lampada burning before the Saint's reliquary.

  The following testimonies are taken from the book, Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, compiled by Archpriest Peter Perekrestov:
  Testimony from Father S.A. of Denver: “On Sunday, December 18, I learned that one of my parishioners—Leonty L., a man of sixty—was in the intensive care unit... The doctor informed Leonty’s family that a tumor had been discovered in one of his lungs and that he had only one month left to live—that he could pass away at any moment. On Monday morning, our parish reader and a parishioner accompanied me to the hospital, where we chanted a prayer service to Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco….” After the service, the priest anointed Leonty with oil from a lampada burning before the Saint’s reliquary—oil that had been sent from San Francisco; on Tuesday, word came that the tumor had vanished. The doctors were utterly bewildered; on Wednesday, they discharged Leonty from the hospital. Father S.A., along with all the faithful who learned of the event, gave glory to the Lord. Glorious is God in His saints!
   This next account retells the miraculous healing from cancer of a 60-year-old Muslim woman and bears witness to the extraordinary grace bestowed by the Lord upon a great ascetic. Through miracles of healing, the Lord leads those of other faiths to Orthodoxy.
  Testimony of Seraphim B. from Eureka, California: "This story, which I witnessed personally, happened to a Muslim friend of mine... It began in a bookstore... One day, while in a bookstore, I reached out for a book about the last Russian Tsar, and someone nearby reached for that very same book. His name was Raul (a Muslim man living in Eureka). We began talking about the Royal Martyrs and Russia... Several months later, we met again, and Raul looked sorrowful... I asked him what was wrong. He told me... that his mother had breast cancer and there was no hope for her recovery..."
   As it later turned out, it was no coincidence that Divine Providence had brought them together: Seraphim—an Orthodox Christian who knew of the miracles of healing wrought through the prayers of the saints—gave Raul an icon of Saint John. He also gave him a small piece of cotton wool wrapped in foil, soaked in oil from the lampada burning before Saint John’s reliquary, and persuaded his new acquaintance to send these items to his mother. He explained that it was necessary to anoint the area where the tumor was located with the oil, making the sign of the cross. A few weeks later, Serafim learned from Raul that a miraculous healing had taken place through the prayers of the Holy Hierarch. The doctor who had taken X-rays of his mother found nothing amiss. Additional examinations were conducted using different equipment, yet no traces of cancer were detected. Later, Raul’s parents expressed a desire to personally thank the Holy Hierarch; they traveled to San Francisco to visit the church dedicated to the Icon of the Mother of God known as "Joy of All Who Sorrow." This event inspired them to begin studying Orthodoxy and to attend an Antiochian church located near their home.
   Another healing from cancer, brought about through the prayers of Holy Hierarch John, occurred in Chicago. Mileva Savich sent her testimony to Father Peter, attesting that she had been healed in 1996 through the intercession of Holy Hierarch John.

   A Testimony by Abbot Kirill (Osipov):
"Valentina A., a parishioner of our church dedicated to the 'Reigning' Icon of the Mother of God [in Astrakhan], having read a book about healings received through the prayers of Blessed John, approached me after the divine service and asked for oil from the relics of Vladyka John for her daughter, who was gravely ill at the time. Valentina explained that a tumor had appeared on her daughter's breast. As the tumor grew, her daughter consulted with doctors. The diagnosis was terrifying: breast cancer. The doctors recommended surgery.
   I administered the Sacrament of Unction to the patient, and later—having soaked a piece of cotton wool in oil from Vladyka John's relics—I gave it to her. She anointed the afflicted area with the sign of the cross several times. She returned to the doctors and underwent another examination prior to the scheduled surgery. Both the doctors and the patient herself were astonished: the tumor had vanished."
   A remarkable instance of healing from multiple ailments—including cancer—occurred at a district hospital in the Astrakhan region. A gravely ill woman named Galina requested to be baptized and to receive Holy Communion while in the hospital. Abbot Kirill (Osipov) visited the hospital, baptized the patient, heard her confession, administered Holy Communion, and anointed her with oil taken from the reliquary of Saint John. To the doctors' astonishment, the patient soon recovered and was discharged to return home.
   Testimony of Galina Simakova from Russia: “In May, I was brought to the hospital in critical condition. I could not move, drink, or speak. For nearly a month, I was unable to take any food... My only plea was: ‘God, if You exist, save me for the sake of my grandchildren, and I will turn to You with faith.’ Due to severe pain, I could not sleep. My diagnosis included: rheumatoid arthritis affecting all joints, lung cancer, a heart defect, and anemia. Consequently, my kidneys, liver, and spleen were also impaired... I reached out to Lyubov Grigoryevna with a request that she bring a priest so that I could be baptized, make my confession, and receive Holy Communion. As soon as Father Kirill baptized me, administered Communion, and anointed me with holy oil from Vladyka John, I immediately rose to my feet. To the utter astonishment of both the doctors and the other patients, I began to recover rapidly. All those terrifying diagnoses were cleared by my attending physician—it was like something out of a fairy tale. My heart brought me great joy: the diagnosis of a ‘heart defect’ was removed, followed shortly thereafter by the diagnosis of ‘lung cancer.’ I am especially grateful for the holy oil taken from the reliquary of Vladyka John of Shanghai. These are true miracles! Whenever any ailment arises—be it a wound, a toothache, a bruise, or a dog bite—I simply anoint the spot while offering up holy prayers, and the pain vanishes... Now I pray to God, and I see clearly that He hears me and comes to my aid.”

Prayer to the Holy Hierarch John Wonderworker of Shanghai & San Francisco

   O beloved Hierarch John, good shepherd and beholder of the hearts and minds of men! Thou prayest for us now at the throne of God, as thou thyself didst say after thy death: "Even though I have died, yet am I alive." Beseech the most compassionate God, that He grant us forgiveness of sins, that we may come wakefully to our senses, and cry out to God, asking that we be given the spirit of humility, the fear of God and piety in all the ways of our life. As thou was a merciful nurturer of orphans and a skilled instructor on earth, be thou now a guide and Christian understanding for us amid the turmoil of the Church; hearken to the groaning of the troubled youth of our corrupt times, who are tempest-tossed by most wicked demonic possession, and mercifully regard the despondency of our weak pastors, caused by the inroads of the corrupting spirit of this world, and who languish in idle indifference. Hasten thou to make supplication, we cry to thee with tears, O fervent advocate; visit us, who are orphaned, scattered over the face of all the world and in our homeland, astray in the darkness of the passions, yet who by our feeble love are drawn to the light of Christ and await thy fatherly instruction; that, having acquired piety, we may be shown to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, where thou abides with all the saints, glorifying our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honor and dominion, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
 
Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco

“If you desire to see a living Saint, go to Bitol to Father John.” – Bishop Nicholas (Velimirovich)
   The future St. John was born on June 4, 1896, in a village called Adamovka, in Kharkiv province to pious aristocrats, Boris and Glafira Maximovitch. He was given the baptismal name of Michael, after the Holy Archangel Michael.  In his youth, Michael displayed an intense religious interest. He was educated at the Poltava Military School (1907-1914), Kharkiv Imperial University, from which he received a law degree in 1918.
   During the Russian Civil War, he and his family were evacuated to Yugoslavia. While in Yugoslavia, he received a degree in theology at the University of Belgrade . After college, he went to a Serbian monastery and was ordained as a monk , at this time receiving his new name: John. The same year, he was ordained as a hieromonk and started teaching in a Serbian seminary. Saint John prayed constantly, served the liturgy every day, and fasted strictly, eating only one meal per day. He slept while sitting up in a chair, and had a cold bath every morning at 4 am.
   With the growth of his popularity, the bishops of the Russian Church Aboard resolved to elevate him to the episcopate. Saint John was consecrated as a bishop  in 1934 and sent to the Shanghai diocese. In the mid-1930s there were about 20,000 Russian immigrants living in Shanghai. Saint John organized the construction of a church, an asylum, hospitals and other social establishments. He always found time to visit the sick in hospitals despite bad weather, and often spent nights at the hospital, praying beside the beds of terminally ill people. To great surprise, the ill would recover, all thanks to St. John's prayers. He would also take orphaned children off the streets and put them in the orphanage he established in honor of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.    This orphanage was like a home to the children and St. John was their loving and caring father. He knew the names of all the orphans and kept track of those who were sick or needed help. Once, during the war, there was not enough food in the orphanage to feed the children. Vladyka prayed all night, and in the morning an unknown person had brought a donation for the orphanage.
   However, when China became a communist regime, St. John had to leave the country with his congregation of about 5,000 people, all of them Russian refugees. The only country which agreed to provide them with asylum was the Philippines. In 1949, the refugees were allowed to live on Tubabao, one of the Philippine islands, which was often hit by typhoons.
   Life on the island was difficult and the refugees had to live in the jungle, cutting the trees by hand in order to set up a camping ground. The locals believed that the refugee camp was left untouched by storms because their “saint” would walk around their camp each day.
   St. John really did walk around the camp each day, blessing each tent, because the violent storms were always threatening to destroy it. Typhoons hit this island every year, but during the 27 months that St. John and the refugees spent on the island, not a single storm hit their camp. One day, on November 11, 1950, a typhoon was moving towards the island; however, it split in half when reaching the refugee camp and did not touch it. Instead, it hit a neighboring island and destroyed everything, killing 600 people.
   Saint John personally petitioned the American Congress and succeeded in making it change the immigration laws, in order to allow Saint John’s congregation to move to the United States. When the refugees left their island, an enormous typhoon hit and completely destroyed their tent camp.
    In 1951, Archbishop John was assigned to the Archdiocese of Western Europe with his cathedral in Paris. During his time there, he also served as Archbishop of the Orthodox Church of France, whose restored Gallican liturgy he studied and then celebrated (he served the liturgy in French, Dutch, Greek, Chinese and English). In 1962, Abp. John was assigned to the Diocese of San Francisco. He reposed after serving liturgy during a visit to Seattle on July 2, 1966, while accompanying a tour of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign". He was laid to rest in a crypt chapel under the main altar of the new Holy Virgin Cathedral, also known as the "Joy of All Who Sorrow."
   In June of 1994, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia glorified him as a saint. On June 24, 2008 he was glorified as Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco by the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Select sayings of Saint John of San Francisco on the topic of prayer:
   “What is prayer? It is a conversation with God. The lofty, immaterial aim of prayer is worthy of all reverence. Yet the highest form of prayer is that in which a person forgets all his own aims—even the loftiest ones—burning with but a single desire: to draw as near as possible to the Lord, to lay his head at His feet, and to surrender his whole heart. This is perfect love and perfect prayer. It is when one desires only to breathe the Lord, to live solely by Him, to love Him, and to take refuge in His nearness—in His ineffable love… The Lord accepts all human petitions—however small and insignificant they may be—provided that the human heart rejoices and trembles as it stands before the face of the Master…Do not be troubled by the magnitude or insignificance of your requests; rather, seek—above all—not that which you wish to ask for, but Him of Whom you wish to ask. Requests are deemed unworthy only when they come from those who love the Lord less than the very object or matter for which they ask.
   But if you love the Lord above all else, then every petition of yours—both great and small—is blessed; every request of yours shall be fulfilled, and any request that, in accordance with God’s will, is not fulfilled will bring you a greater good than the one that is. And a great fruit always remains within our soul from prayer: we ascend to heaven, to the Creator of Lights, and upon our heart descends the divine coal of Seraphic grace….”



 
The Kursk- Root Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign"
   The story of the miracle-working icon begins during the times when the Mongols led by Batu Khan flew to Holy Russia. During the invasion of Batu Khan, the Russian city of Kursk was destroyed to such a degree that it was overgrown by trees. In 1295 a hunter discovered an icon in the roots of a tree. When he lifted the Icon up, a spring sprang from the ground. The rumor about the miracle Icon reached Prince Vassily Shemyaka who ordered the Icon to be brought to Rylsk. But he himself did not take part in the solemn meeting of the Icon, and he became blind because of his disbelief. Only after his repentance before the Icon was his vision returned. Shemyaka built a Church named after the Nativity of the Mother of God. It was decided that the miracle Icon be placed into this Church. But the Icon returned to its previous place in the roots of the tree numerous times. Then it was decided to build a chapel at the place where the Icon was found. In 1383 mongols burnt the chapel, they chopped the Icon in two halves, and captured the priest. After some time, the priest returned to the holy place, where he found the two halves of the Icon, put them together and they immediately merged.  In 1612, after praying before the icon, the battle against the Poles was won. There are numerous examples of evidence for the healings of the faithful who prayed before this Icon… Interestingly, just before the Russian Revolution there was an assassination attempt on the Icon. However, despite significant destruction, the Icon was not damaged. The refugees took the Icon to America. (In the USA one old man came to the church where the Icon was and admitted to the priest that when he was an unbeliever as a young boy, he decided to check for himself the miraculous nature of the Icon. He sneaked into the church at night and orchestrated an explosion near the Icon. He was astonished by what he saw when he returned to the church the next morning. There was destruction all around but the miracle Icon was intact.)


 
Saint Nectarios of Aegina
   Saint Nectarios of Aegina  (1846–1920) (in the world Anastasios Kephalas), son of Dimosthenis and Vassiliki, was born on October 1st, 1846, in Eastern Selyvria of Thrace (Now Turkey). He was one of six children. His parents were very poor but pious Christians...  His early years were spent at the local elementary school in Selyvria... At the age of fourteen and with his parents’ blessings, Anastasios went to Constantinople  to find work for their financial assistance with the hope that he would be able to continue his studies...
   In Constantinople, the young man managed to get a job in a tobacco shop. Here Anastasios, who wanted to realize his childhood dream — to help people spiritually, — began to write the sayings of the Holy Fathers on the pouches and wrappers of tobacco products. Anastasios was paid very little money, which was barely enough for food. When his clothes and shoes were worn out, Anastasios decided to ask the Lord for help. He truly believed that the Lord would help him. Telling in a letter about his plight, he wrote on the envelope the following address: “to the Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven."
   And the Lord really helped him through a good man, the owner of a nearby store, who at the same time was going to the post office. The man felt sorry for the barefoot young man and suggested to take his letter to the post office. Anastasios handed him his letter willingly. The kind man looked at the envelope, and saw that instead of an address on  it, there was written only to whom the letter was intended for. He realized that the Lord wanted him to help the poor young man. He walked a little, opened the letter and read it, then immediately he sent money to Anastasios. After receiving the money, Anastasios thanked the Lord.
   The following significant event strengthened the faith of Anastasios even more. One day the young man went home to spend the Christmas holidays with his family. During the trip, a storm began and the mast of the ship broke down, unable to withstand the onslaught of the wind. Everybody was terrified, but Anastasios did not lose courage and he took off his belt, tied his cross to it, and pulled the mast down. He held the mast with one of his hands; and with the help of the other hand, he crossed himself and called upon the Lord to save the ship. The prayer of the young man was heard: the ship arrived safely to the port.
   The Lord did not only save Anastasios, but also helped him to receive a spiritual education. When he was twenty, Anastasios went to the Island of Chios where he was appointed teacher at a village named Lithi. He was always present at church services and was never far from those in need... Seven years later, at the age of 30, he entered the great and renowned monastery of Nea Moni... After completing three years as a novice under the care of the venerable Elder Pachomios, on November 7, 1875, he became a monk and received the name of Lazarus in his tonsure. He studied, prayed and fasted, even harder now, day and night…Two years later, he was ordained a deacon by Metropolitan Gregory of Chios, due to his great virtues and his piety. It was at his ordination as deacon that he was given the name Nectarios.  He had only completed elementary school, therefore, Elder Pachomios convinced him to complete his high school studies in Athens. This was made possible through the financial support of a wealthy local benefactor...
    At the age of forty, the Patriarch ordained deacon Nectarios as a priest and sent him to the Church of St. Nicholas in Cairo. A few years later, in that same church, he was consecrated as Bishop of Pentapolis. (He will rise high up the spiritual ladder. He was destined to become Metropolitan of Pentapolis. His rapid rise, the love of the Patriarch and the people, and—even more so—the Saint's virtuous and pure life, aroused envy and hatred in many. Influential figures slandered the Saint, and the Metropolitan of Pentapolis was dismissed from his post.)
   With profound humility, this chosen one of God endured his trials. For his steadfast faith, he was deemed worthy of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: the gift of spiritual insight and the gift of healing. Contemporaries recounted that, when he celebrated the Divine Liturgy, his face radiated a light that was visible to those around him. Miracles began to happen after the prayers of the ascetic, and people were healed after his prayer.
   For some time, Bishop Nectarios was the Director of the Ecclesiastical school in Athens. Bishop Nectarios  treated the children and employees of the school with great love and great patience. There were cases when he imposed a strict fast upon himself for the fault of the students. He abstained from food and drank only water, and he prayed for the salvation of the students’ souls.
   The Elder spent the last years of his life on the island of Aegina, where he founded a convent. He was able to buy a small plot of land of his own means. There was an abandoned and almost destroyed monastery on that plot.
   He was not afraid of any work: he planted trees and flowerbeds, cleaned, and sewed slippers for nuns. He was infinitely merciful, quickly responded to the needs of poor people, often asked the nuns to give the last meal to the poor visitors. The nuns sometimes handed out the last things they had, but after the prayers of the elder, the Lord would send
the merciful people who would bring foodstuffs or monetary donations to the monastery the very next day.
   The spiritual children of the Elder Nectarios told that through the prayers of elder Nektarios not only the situation on the island began to change, but also even the climate had changed. Farmers had asked the elder for prayerful help repeatedly during a drought; and after the prayer of Bishop Nektarios, the plentiful rain descended to the earth, and the harvest was saved. Many believers venerated the Elder as a saint: believers said that they saw his “light” during his prayer. On November 8, 1920, the Lord took the soul of Bishop Nectarios to his Heavenly abode.
   Many miraculous healings happened at the grave of Elder Nectarios. Residents of the Greek island of Aegina, through the prayers of the righteous man, were protected during the German occupation in World War 2. After the war, the former German commandant admitted that the military pilots, who flew to bomb the island of Crete, were flying past the island of Aegina and did not see it (despite the good visibility and the cloudless sky). On November 5, 1961, Bishop Nectarios was canonized as a Saint of the Greek Orthodox Church (Saint Nektarios of Aegina).


Kontakion 1
In joy of heart let us hymn with songs the newly revealed star of Orthodoxy, the newly erected bulwark of the Church; for, glorified by the activity of the Spirit, he pours forth the abundant grace of healings upon those who cry:
Rejoice, O Father Nektarios, model of patience and lover of virtue.


Saint Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky)

   Saint Luke (Voyno-Yasenetsky) (1877–1961) was a brilliant surgeon who rendered accurate diagnoses without fail. He also possessed a gift of the Holy Spirit—the gift of healing through prayer. Patients deemed incurable were healed after visiting Vladyka Luke. According to eyewitness accounts, during the final years of his life, even as he was losing his sight, Vladyka continued to aid the suffering by offering consultations and interceding in prayer for those with terminal illnesses. One day, a twelve-year-old boy was brought before the Vladyka. A tumor had formed on the sick boy’s neck, hanging down onto his chest. Vladyka asked the boy’s mother not to heed the doctors who were insisting on surgery, but rather to return to him in three days. Three days later, the grateful mother brought her son, who was now completely healed, to the hierarch to receive his blessing.

The Life the Holy Hierarch & Confessor Luke

   On April 27, 1877, in Kerch, a son was born into the large family of a Catholic pharmacist, Felix Voyno-Yasenetsky. The boy was named Valentin and in the late 1880s, the family moved to Kyiv. While the future Archbishop’s father was a Catholic, his wife, Maria, had been born into an Orthodox family. Consequently, she raised their children in the Orthodox tradition. A deep faith came to Valentin after he undertook a thoughtful reading of the New Testament, a copy of which had been gifted to him by his school principal at his high school graduation.
   From childhood, Valentin had an inclination toward drawing; he even intended to enroll in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, yet at the same time, he aspired to become a rural teacher or a medical assistant. In 1898, Valentin entered the Medical Faculty of Kyiv University, and in 1903, he successfully graduated. He was destined to become not only a remarkable surgeon but also, having taken monastic vows in his later years under the name Luke, to become a spiritual mentor and healer to many people. On March 30, 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Valentin departed for the Far East as part of a Red Cross detachment. The young surgeon began his medical practice in Chita where he performed highly complex operations with flawless precision.
   In 1904, Valentin married Anna Vasilievna Lanskaya, a nurse. Shortly thereafter, the newlyweds moved to the district town of Ardatov, and later relocated to the village of Verkhny Lubazh. Patients from neighboring provinces traveled to seek out the young surgeon. On one occasion, following a successful operation performed by Valentin, a young beggar regained his sight. Before long, the healed youth gathered blind people from all over the surrounding region and to many of them he restored their vision. In the hospitals where he worked, Valentin frequently encountered severe complications following the administration of general anesthesia. The advent of analgesic agents for local anesthesia led the surgeon to recognize the need to explore the field of regional analgesia; consequently, from 1907 to 1916, he gathered material for his doctoral dissertation. Valentin moved to Moscow and secured a position at the clinic of the prominent scientist P.I. Dyakonov.
   In 1916 he wrote, and successfully defended, his doctoral dissertation which would prove to be of much importance and relevance. During the early years of his career he published many scientific treatises and eventually became the head surgeon and professor of surgery at the hospital in Tashkent in March 1917. From 1917 to 1923 he lived in Tashkent and worked in the New City Hospital as a surgeon.
   In 1919 his beloved wife died from tuberculosis, leaving their four children without a mother's care, which was a severe trial for Doctor Voyno-Yasenetsky, but he never remarried .
   By the providence of God, Valentin’s life unfolded in such a way that in February 1922—following the death of his wife and with the blessing of Bishop Innocent of Tashkent and Turkestan— he was ordained a deacon. Just one week later, he was ordained a priest. Father Valentin was assigned to a church in Tashkent, where he served and pleased God. At the same time, he did not give up his medical practice or his teaching.  In 1923, Father Valentin, moved by zeal and piety, was tonsured as a monk. Bishop Andrew (Ukhtomsky) of Ufa, after listening to Valentine’s sermons, chose for him the name of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. Thus, Father Valentin became Hieromonk Luke. At the end of May, Hieromonk Luke was secretly consecrated as Bishop of Penjikent. A few days later, he was arrested because of his support for Patriarch Tikhon.
   For some time Saint Luke languished in the dungeon of the Tashkent prison until he was taken to Moscow. He was allowed to live in a private apartment for a short time before he was taken into custody again: first in Butyrka prison, and then to Taganskaya prison. Then the sufferer was sent into exile to Yeniseisk where he served at home and was allowed to operate. There, he saved the health of more than one resident. Several times the Saint was transferred from one place to another. The Saint recalled an encounter while in   Yeniseisk: staying in a house where divine services were being held, he unexpectedly encountered an elderly monk he did not know, who, upon seeing him, froze in astonishment. When Bishop Luke asked him what was the matter, the monk replied, “Ten years ago, I had a dream… I dreamt that I was in a church of God, and an unknown hierarch was ordaining me as a hieromonk. Just now, when you entered, I saw that very hierarch.” “The monk made a prostration before me, and during the Liturgy, I ordained him a hieromonk. Ten years earlier, when he had last seen me, I was a district surgeon in Pereslavl-Zalessky. Yet in the eyes of God, I was already a bishop at that very time…. Such are the inscrutable ways of the Lord,” Vladyka Luke recalled.
   Bishop Luke used every opportunity to serve God and to heal people, and after the end of his exile, he returned to Tashkent and served in the local church. But the Soviet authorities were not going to leave the bishop alone. Following his very first successful operations, news of the gifted surgeon spread like wildfire throughout the entire region. Denunciations began to be written against the physician—a man who recited prayers before every surgery and maintained that it was God who healed the sick through his hands.
   In May of 1931, he was subjected to another arrest and spent several months in prison after which he was exiled to Arkhangelsk for a period of three years. While in Arkhangelsk he continued to treat patients. In December 1937, he was arrested again. The Saint was interrogated for several days in a row, demanding that he sign certain protocols... He went on a hunger strike, flatly refusing to sign what his Christian conscience could not accept. A new sentence followed, and a new exile, this time to Siberia. From 1937 to 1941, the convicted Hierarch lived in the town of Bolshaya Murta, in Krasnoyarsk Territory. At the beginning of World War II, he was relocated to Krasnoyarsk and was involved in treating the wounded. In 1943, the Saint was appointed as the Archbishop the Krasnoyarsk, and a year later he was appointed as the Archbishop of Tambov and Michurinsk. During this period, the attitude of the authorities toward the Saint seemed to have changed. In February 1946, he was awarded the Stalin Prize for scientific developments in the field of medicine.
    On June 11, 1961, the Lord called Saint Luke to His heavenly Kingdom. His body was buried in the Simferopol cemetery. On November 22, 1995, Archbishop Luke of Simferopol and Crimea was numbered among the locally venerated Saints of Crimea. On March 20, 1996, Saint Luke's relics were transferred to the Holy Trinity church in Simferopol. At the last Memorial Service, His Eminence Bishop Lazarus, Archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea noted: "For the first time on the Crimean land there is an event of exceptional importance. The radiant personality of Archbishop Luke seems to us today as a saving beacon, toward which each of us must direct our gaze." A part of his relics was also given to Sagmata Monastery in Greece, and throughout the world, where they continue to work countless miracles. In May 1946, Saint Luke was made Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol. At this time his eye disease progressed, and in 1958 he became completely blind. However, as eyewitnesses recall, the Saint not only did not lose his courage, nor did he lose the ability to come to church on his own, to venerate shrines, and to participate in the Divine Services.
St. Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev)

   Archbishop Seraphim (1881–1950) was born in Ryazan and was given the name Nikolay Sobolev. His mother, Maria was a woman of strong faith and had eleven children, but the majority of them died at an early age. Once, when Nikolay was studying at a Holy parochial school, his arithmetic teacher was showing a very complex problem on the blackboard. Once he demonstrated it, he asked the students whether they understood. In return, there was only silence from the class. The teacher asked the same question more than once, and didn't receive a satisfying answer. Angered, he screamed “so, whichever one of you is stupid, come to the front of the class!” Nikolay, immediately got up, and stood in front of him. Surprised, the teacher asked, “Is it really you, Sobolev, that is stupid?” “Yes, I'm stupid” replied Nikolay. “You are not stupid, you are an intelligent, good boy, go back to your seat...”
   Nikolay was an excellent student, and he finished school as the top student in the class. After he finished parish school, he attended the Ryazan Theological Seminary. Before his last year in the seminary, Nikolay experienced a sudden inspiration to dedicate all of himself to the Lord. With tears in his eyes, he began to feverishly pray, “My Savior! Help me write this essay as best as I could, and I give you my word that I'll be a monk and belong to you from now on, with all of my being.” From that moment, his essays were always the best in class. Once he graduated from the seminary, his mother, feeling that his health was too poor to attend the Academy, put all of her efforts into making him into a priest. Finally, in mid-August of 1904, she said, “all of our efforts to find you a wife and urge you to become a priest, didn’t get anywhere. Now it is time for you to be in charge of your own destiny.” To this he answered, “if it is so, then let's go to the cathedral, to our Mother, the Queen of Heaven, to her miraculous icon ‘Bogolybskaya,’ and ask the Mother of God, for her to point out my own life’s route.” His mother readily agreed. However, the miraculous icon was already gone from the cathedral as it was on the way back to Zimarovo. In route to the cathedral, they met a companion of Nikolay’s, and he advised him to go to the Academy.
   After receiving his mother's blessings, Nikolay was on his way to the Academy. The first entrance exam was in written form. He got the best grade for his essay, but after that, the next part had to be demonstrative, and for this he was unprepared. The night before the exam, he sat and wept - of 150 questions, he only knew one. In tears, Nikolay, begged the Lord and Savior, that he would get the one question that he knew how to answer. The next morning, he went to the Academy’s church and gave an earthly bow to the Icon of Our Savior, and he asked for his request once again and went to the exams. The Lord answered his prayers, and was given the same exact question that he begged the Lord he would receive. After getting an excellent grade, he thanked the Lord and went on to study for the next exam. The next exam was about Church history, and there were 250 questions, and Nikolay was only good at answering one question, so he once again begged our Savior to get the same exact question he knew well. With tears, he begged: “Savior of Mine, Joy of mine! You are merciful, omnipotent, what must it take for you to answer my request once again? You see that I only know how to answer one question, and the rest, I do not know. Let it be, that I get the same question. Otherwise, I will fail, and will have to go home, and that will distress my mother.” Afterwards, the young man went to his room, and fell asleep in tears. In the morning, before the exam, he was very worried; after all, this was the day that determined his fate. When they called Nikolay to the test table, he took out the ticket with the question he had hoped for. He answered questions on the ticket so well, that the professor decided to give thanks to the Ryazan Seminary for such an excellent student.
   In the spring of 1907, Nikolay Sobolev attended a service conducted by Father John of Kronstadt at St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt. He later recalled the event: "Father John blessed me... The Father placed his hands upon my head in the sign of the cross, lifted his eyes toward heaven, and, in a moving voice, pronounced: 'May the blessing of God rest upon you.' I immediately felt as though a fiery spark had descended upon my head and coursed down to my very feet. A singular, profound joy filled my heart and my entire being."
   In January 1908, Nikolai was tonsured a monk, receiving the name Seraphim (in honor of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov). A month later, he was deemed worthy to be ordained a hierodeacon, and that spring, he was ordained a hieromonk.
   In September 1908, Father Seraphim defended his candidate’s dissertation on the topic: "The Teaching of the Holy Fathers of the 5th and 6th Centuries on Humility, According to the Philokalia." In 1908, Father Seraphim began teaching at the Pastoral School in Zhytomyr and was subsequently transferred to the position of Superintendent of the Kaluga Spiritual School. During this period, he frequently visited Optina Hermitage and conversed with the now-glorified Elders Anatoly, Barsanuphius, and Joseph.

“This is a miraculous catch!”
   In 1910, on Christmas break, Father Seraphim went to his mother's city of Peremishl. His mother was really happy, but had no idea what to feed her lovely son, for he did not eat meat, and to find fish in the city during the winter was impossible. So, tearfully she turned to the icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. After praying to his image, she put on her sheepskin coat and stepped outside. From the side she saw a man walking by very quickly. She called to the man and he came up to her. “Are you a fisherman?” she asked. “Yes, I am, and so what?” “My son will be coming soon, he is a monk, and he does not eat meat, just fish. Can you go up to the river, and catch some fish, I will pay you anything.” “Do you think fish can be caught at this time? All the fish are at the bottom right now, it's 25 degrees below zero, right now.” But the mother still insisted. “My son will pray to God for you.” The man finally agreed. He went to the river Oka, and it took him an hour to just break the ice, then after crossing himself and praying, just like the mother taught him, he put down his fishnet and said “My Lord, for Father Seraphim, your slave, send some fish.” Once the net went down in the water, the net started moving, and the man pulled out a big fish. He brought it to the mother who happily offered him money. The man, however, sharply refused, saying, “Mother, I don't need anything, this is a miraculous catch, tell your son to pray to God, for Peter, his slave; this is a miracle!”
   In 1911, Father Seraphim was appointed Inspector of the Kostroma Seminary. In 1912, Hieromonk Seraphim became an Archimandrite and Rector of the Voronezh Spiritual Seminary.
   Following the revolution of 1918, the seminary was closed, and Father Seraphim relocated to the Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. When Red Army troops entered Voronezh, he fled the city in an open coal car. Upon reaching the Crimean Peninsula, he was appointed Rector of the Taurida Theological Seminary by a decree of the Supreme Church Administration of Southern Russia. On October 1, 1920 in the Cathedral of Simferopol, Archimandrite Seraphim was consecrated a bishop, and soon after this he had to leave his native land. When the Red Army advanced into Crimea, Bishop Seraphim departed for Constantinople, subsequently relocating to Bulgaria.
    During his lifetime, witnesses said, Archbishop Seraphim was always understanding of people's limitations, and he healed people's heartaches and soul wounds with love. He cared for poor and ailing Russian people:  arranged free hospital admission for some, placed others in homes for the disabled, secured financial aid for a third group, and simply fed yet others at his own home. At that time, Russian monks on Mount Athos were on the verge of starvation, as Russia no longer provided them with support. The Vladyka established a committee to collect aid for them and, in his sermons, urged his parishioners to donate to this holy cause. In Bulgaria, people thought of him as a gifted elder, to whom the Lord helped see sins of the people. Through his prayers, people were healed and single people found their soulmates. Many students, right before exams, went to the temple to ask the elder to pray for them, and after receiving his blessing, passed their exams.
   In 1934, Bishop Seraphim was elevated to the rank of Archbishop. Archbishop Seraphim left this world to our Lord in 1950, February 26, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Before his death, Vladyka said to his spiritual children, “If I find boldness before the Lord, I will not leave you.” And in fact, the night after the burial, Vladyka appeared in a dream to one of his spiritual sons, a monk, and said, “Why are you weeping? I have not died, I am alive!”
   Archimandrite Philip (Vasiltsev) recounted that when they began documenting testimonies regarding the assistance rendered by Vladyka Seraphim, testimonies corroborated by medical records, "There were more than a hundred recorded posthumous miracles alone attributed to his prayers. The majority of these were instances of miraculous healing, including many cures from cancer, as well as cases involving the gift of a child and the resolution of family matters. It has also been noted that the prayers of this Hierarch aid schoolchildren and university students in passing their exams."
   A woman named Maria Krusteva from the city of Stara Zagora suffered from a leg that had swollen so severely that she was unable to wear any footwear. In Sofia, a doctor prescribed medication, but she could not afford to purchase it due to the high cost. Before heading home, Maria spent a long time praying at the tomb of Vladyka Seraphim, located in the crypt of St. Nicholas Church. She boarded the bus with one foot shod in a shoe and the other clad only in a sock. Yet, by the time she reached her hometown, the swelling had completely subsided. A young woman named Kamelia Stamatova from Burgas testified in a letter that her grandmother had been diagnosed with an aggressive, rapidly progressing form of cancer. The entire family prayed to Vladyka Seraphim for help. A month later, a medical examination revealed that not a single trace of the disease remained. A young man, A.P., graduated from a university in Sofia with a specialization in Russian philology. He worked in his field for a time, but was soon laid off along with several colleagues due to staff reductions. He struggled unsuccessfully to find suitable employment. An acquaintance of his mother suggested that he turn to Archbishop Seraphim in prayer and ask for his assistance. He followed this advice and, quite unexpectedly, he secured a teaching position at a school.
   In February 26. 2002, the glorification of Bishop Seraphim occurred in the Cathedral “Dormition of Blessed Virgin Mary” in the city of Sofia. In February 2016, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a decision to glorify Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Boguchar as a saint.

Troparion to Saint Seraphim, Archbishop of Boguchar
 Tone 4
Ever inflamed with divine zeal, / thou didst appear as a pillar of Orthodoxy, / shining forth in the city of Sofia; / and through thy piety, thou didst lead many people unto Christ. / O good shepherd, Hierarch Seraphim, / pray unto Christ God // that our souls may be saved.

 
Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles

   Saint Nicholas (Kasatkin) Equal of the Apostles, Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. Missionary, Founder of the Orthodox Church in Japan, honorary member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. (Name Day: May 9).
   Saint Nicholas (1836–1912) (named John Kasatkin by his parents) was born on August 1, 1836 in the village of Berezovsky Pogost, Belsky District, Smolensk Province into the family of a deacon. He graduated from the Belsk Theological School and the Smolensk Theological Seminary (1857). Being among the best students, he was recommended for the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. There, he studied until 1860 when he was awarded a Ph. D in Theology and given the post of rector of the church at the Russian consulate in the city of Hakodate, Japan. On June 23, 1860, he was tonsured by the rector of the Academy, Bishop Nektarios (Nadezhdin), and received the name Nicholas after Saint Nicholas of Myra. On June 30, he was ordained a Hieromonk. He arrived at Hakodate on July 2, 1861. During the first years of his stay in Japan, on his own, he studied the Japanese language, culture, and way of life.
The first Japanese person to convert to Orthodoxy, despite the fact that conversion to Christianity was forbidden by law, was the adopted son of a Shinto cleric, Takuma Sawabe, a former samurai who was baptized with two other Japanese in the spring of 1868. In 1870, through his intercession, a Russian ecclesiastical mission was opened in Japan with its center in Tokyo. On March 17, 1880, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was assigned as vicar of Reval, then vicar of the Diocese of Riga. He was consecrated as a Bishop on March 30, 1880, in Holy Trinity Cathedral at Alexander Nevsky Lavra.   In the course of his missionary work, Father Nicholas translated the Holy Scriptures and other liturgical books into Japanese. He established a theological seminary, six theological schools for girls and boys, a library, a shelter and other institutions. He published the Orthodox journal Church Herald in Japanese. According to his report to the Holy Synod, by the end of 1890, the Orthodox Church in Japan numbered 216 communities with 18,625 Christians in them. On March 8, 1891, the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Tokyo, called Nikorai-do by the Japanese, was consecrated.    On March 24, 1906, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Tokyo and All Japan. In the same year, the Kyoto Vicariate was founded. In 1911, when half a century of Saint  Nicholas' missionary work was completed, there were already 266 communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church, which included 33,017 Orthodox laymen.
Archbishop Nicholas, the Enlightener of Japan, fell asleep in the Lord on February 3, 1912 at the age of 76. After the Hierarch's repose, the Japanese Emperor Meiji personally gave permission for him to be buried within the city, at the Yanaka cemetery. In Japan, Saint Nicholas is revered as a great righteous man and a special intercessor before the Lord. He was canonized on April 10, 1970, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate. Saint Nicholas is also commemorated on the Sunday before July 28 (Synaxis of the Smolensk Saints).

 
Saint Nicholas of Serbia (Velimirovich)

   Nikolai Velimirovich was born in 1881 into the large peasant family of Dragomir and Katerina Velimirovich in a small Serbian village. His mother subsequently took monastic vows. After completing gymnasium, the young Nikolai Velimirovich entered the Belgrade Theological Seminary. Upon his graduation from the seminary, he began working as a village schoolteacher. Subsequently, he received a scholarship to pursue studies in Switzerland and Germany, and later in England. During his life he successfully mastered several foreign languages. Upon his return to Belgrade, the future Bishop was struck by a severe illness. During his sickness, he made a vow to God to dedicate his life to Him, to the Holy Orthodox Church, and to his fellow human beings. This decision was soon followed by Nikolai’s miraculous recovery from a grave illness. At Rakovica Monastery, located near Belgrade, he received the monastic tonsure with the name Nikolai, and was subsequently ordained.
   In 1910, Hieromonk Nikolai was already pursuing his studies in Russia at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. He visited the Orthodox shrines of the Russian land, and during this journey, he acquired that love for Russia and the Russian people which would accompany him throughout the remainder of his life. In 1912, he arrived in Bosnia—a territory that had been annexed by Austria-Hungary shortly before. There, in Sarajevo, his speeches stirred the enthusiasm of the Serbian youth and the leaders of the Serbian national liberation movement. He uttered the famous words: "Through their immense love and great hearts, the Bosnian Serbs have annexed Serbia to Bosnia." This provoked the wrath of the Austrian occupation authorities; Hieromonk Nikolai was removed from a train bound for Belgrade and detained in Zemun for several days. Subsequently, the Austrian authorities forbade him from traveling to Zagreb.
   Even at that early stage, the future Bishop began to emerge as the de facto spiritual guide of the Orthodox Chetnik liberation movement.   In 1920, Hieromonk Nikolai became the Bishop of Ohrid, in Macedonia. The Bishop traveled to the most remote corners of his diocese, met with the faithful, assisted in the restoration of churches and monasteries destroyed by the war, and founded orphanages.  The Bishop devoted all his free time to prayer and literary endeavors. He slept very little. It was here that his works—such as Thoughts on Good and Evil, Homilies, Missionary Letters, and other remarkable writings—came into the world, one after another.  Bishop Nikolai established such charitable homes for children in many Serbian cities; in the pre-war years, these homes provided shelter for approximately 600 children. It is known that during the German occupation—while he was held under German surveillance within a monastery—Bishop Nikolai saved a Jewish family, a mother and daughter, from imminent execution. Indeed, he even transported the young girl by concealing her inside a sack of provisions.
    In 1944, Bishop Nikolai and Patriarch Gavrilo were imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. On May 8, 1945, the prisoners were liberated by the advancing American army. While in the camp, the bishop wrote the book "Through Prison Bars", in which he calls upon Christians to repent and reflects on why God permitted such terrible calamities to befall humanity. Together with his people, Bishop Nikolai endured terrible suffering during the war years. Yet, God preserved him amidst these tribulations.
  Always distinguished by his deep love for the Russian people, he fittingly concluded his earthly journey in the Russian Monastery of Saint Tikhon in Pennsylvania. He reposed in the Lord during private prayer in his cell on March 18, 1956. Vladyka’s body was transferred to the Serbian Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, where it was laid to rest. The popular veneration of him as a saint, which had begun during his lifetime, continued and intensified after his death. The ecclesiastical glorification of Saint Nikolai of Serbia occurred on March 18, 1987.  In 1991, his holy relics were transferred from the United States to his native Leli;. The transfer of the Vladyka’s relics became a nationwide celebration, and the day of the transfer was entered into the church calendar. The church housing this great shrine attracts an ever-increasing number of pilgrims each year. By a decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, dated October 6, 2003, the name of Saint Nicholas of Serbia was included in the Menologion of the Russian Orthodox Church, with his feast day celebrated on April 20/May 3 (the day of the transfer of his relics). Orthodox Christians throughout the world—and particularly in Serbia and Russia—turn to Vladyka for prayerful intercession.

 
Saint Tikhon (Bellavin)

"May God teach every one of us to strive for His truth, and for the good of the Holy Church, rather than something for our own sake." St. Tikhon

   St. Tikhon (Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin) (1865—1925) was born on January 19, 1865 into the family of Ioann Bellavin, a rural priest of the Toropetz district of the Pskov diocese. His childhood and adolescence were spent in the village. When Vasily was still a boy, his father had a revelation: Vasily would become a great man. The prophecy proved true. From 1878 to 1883, Vasily studied at the Pskov Theological Seminary. His fellow students liked and respected him for his piety, brilliant progress in studies, and constant readiness to help them; they often turned to him for explanations of lessons. Vasily was called "bishop" and "patriarch" by his classmates.
   In 1888, at the age of 23, Vasily graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy as a layman, and returned to the Pskov Seminary as an instructor of Moral and Dogmatic Theology. He led an austere and chaste life, and in 1891, when he turned 26, he took monastic vows. Nearly the whole town gathered for the ceremony. He embarked on this new way of life consciously and deliberately, desiring to dedicate himself entirely to the service of the Church. The meek and humble young man was given the name Tikhon in honor of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk.
   He was transferred from the Pskov Seminary to the Kholm Theological Seminary in 1892, and was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. Archimandrite Tikhon was consecrated Bishop of Lublin on October 19, 1897, and returned to Kholm for a year as Vicar Bishop of the Kholm Diocese. Bishop Tikhon zealously devoted his energy to the establishment of the new vicariate… On September 14, 1898, Bishop Tikhon was made Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. As head of the Orthodox Church in America, Bishop Tikhon of the Aleutian Islands and North America, worked to build churches, translate liturgical texts into English, and establish Orthodox parishes for immigrants and converts across the USA. "Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska" became the "Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America" in 1900.  Both clergy and laity loved their Archipastor.
   On May 22, 1901, he blessed the cornerstone for St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York, and was also involved in establishing other churches. On November 9, 1902, he consecrated the church of St. Nicholas in Brooklyn for the Syrian Orthodox immigrants. Two weeks later, he consecrated St. Nicholas Cathedral in NY. He did much to promote the spread of Orthodoxy, and to improve his vast Diocese. In 1905, the American Mission was made an Archdiocese, and St. Tikhon was elevated to the rank of Archbishop.
   In 1907, he returned to Russia, and was appointed to serve in Yaroslavl, where he quickly won the affection of his flock.  He spoke simply to his subordinates, never resorting to a peremptory or overbearing tone. When he had to reprimand someone, he did so in a good-natured, sometimes joking manner, which encouraged the person to correct his mistakes. After his transfer to Vilnius (Lithuania) on December 22, 1913, he did much in terms of material support for various charitable institutions.  In the summer of 1915, German troops launched an offensive in Lithuania. At the end of August 1915, the city of Vilnius fell to the Germans. Archbishop Tikhon was forced to leave his Diocese.
   After the February Revolution and formation of a new Synod, St. Tikhon became one of its members. On June 21, 1917, the Moscow Diocesan Congress of clergy and laity elected him as their ruling Bishop. On August 15, 1917, a local council was opened in Moscow, and Archbishop Tikhon was raised to the dignity of Metropolitan, and then elected as chairman of the council. The council had as its aim to restore the life of the Russian Orthodox Church on strictly canonical principles, and its primary concern was the restoration of the Patriarchate. All council members would select three candidates, and then a lot would reveal the will of God. The council members chose three candidates. The lot with the name of Patriarch Tikhon was drawn by Elder Alexy (Hieromonk Alexy Soloviev (1846-1928)) of the Zosima Hermitage. This occurred on November 18, 1917, at the All-Russian Local Council in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, after a secret vote and a prayer service before the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. (The position of Patriarch was brought back in 1917 after being abolished for 200 years.)
   St. Tikhon did not change after becoming the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. In accepting the will of the council, he foresaw that his ministry would be filled with affliction and tears, but through all his suffering, he remained the same accessible, unassuming, and kind person. All who met St. Tikhon were surprised by his accessibility, simplicity and modesty. He bore a very heavy cross. The situation was complicated by external circumstances: the change of the political system, by the accession to power of the godless regime, by hunger, and civil war. This was a time when Church property was being confiscated, when clergy were subjected to court trials and persecutions, and Christ's Church endured oppression.
   Patriarch Tikhon called his flock to fulfill the commandments of Christ, and to attain spiritual rebirth through repentance. His irreproachable life was an example to all.
   On July 12, 1919 (New Style), an assassination attempt was made on Patriarch Tikhon. As he was leaving the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a woman (later rumors suggested that a man was hiding under woman's clothing) stabbed the saint in the side.     The Patriarch was saved by the leather belt on his cassock, which softened the blow. On September 25, 1919, when the civil war was at its height, Patriarch Tikhon issued a message to the clergy urging them to stay away from political struggle.
   The summer of 1921 brought a severe famine to the Volga region. In August, Patriarch Tikhon issued a message to the Russian people and to the people of the world, calling them to help the famine victims. He gave his blessing for voluntary donations of church valuables, which were not being directly used in liturgical services. However, on February 23, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee published a decree making all valuables subject to confiscation.
   According to the 73rd Apostolic Canon, actions such as this decree were regarded as sacrilege, and the Patriarch could not approve total confiscation. The Patriarch's message was viewed as sabotage -   he was imprisoned from April 1922 until June 1923.
   Being a good pastor, who devoted himself entirely to the church's cause, he called upon the clergy to do the same: "Devote all your energy to preaching the word of God and the truth of Christ, especially today, when unbelief and atheism are audaciously attacking the Church of Christ. May the God of peace and love be with all of you!"
His concern for the organization of Church life, and sleepless nights combined to undermine his strength and his health. 
   On May 6, armed guards appeared at the Trinity Compound, where the Patriarch's residence was located. Patriarch Tikhon was informed that he was under house arrest. On May 19, he was taken under guard to the Donskoy Monastery and placed under arrest in a small two-story house next to the gate church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God.
   In his final address, Patriarch Tikhon said: "My children! All Orthodox Russians! All Christians! Only on the rock of healing evil with good will the indestructible glory and greatness of our Holy Orthodox Church be built, and her Holy Name and the purity of the deeds of her children and servants will be elusive even to her enemies. Follow Christ! Do not betray Him. Do not succumb to temptation, do not destroy your souls in the blood of vengeance. Do not be defeated by evil. Conquer evil with good!"
   Since the spring of 1923, preparations for Patriarch Tikhon's trial had been underway. An indictment had already been drawn up, demanding that the Patriarch should be sentenced to death by firing squad for "counterrevolutionary activity." During these days, in May 1923, Patriarch Tikhon was returned from the GPU internal prison to the Donskoy Monastery. On June 27, 1923, Patriarch Tikhon was finally released from custody. In 1924, he began to feel unwell.
   He checked into a hospital, but would leave it on Sundays and Feast Days in order to conduct services. On Sunday, April 5, 1925, Patriarch Tikhon served his last Liturgy, and died two days later. Almost a million people came to say farewell to the Patriarch. St. Tikhon, the eleventh Patriarch of Moscow, who was primate of the Russian Church for seven and a half years.
   On September 26/October 9, 1989, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church glorified Patriarch Tikhon and numbered him among the saints. For nearly seventy years, St.Tikhon's relics were believed lost, but in February 1992, they were discovered in a concealed place in the Donskoy Monastery.
   In May 1991, monastic life was resumed in Donskoy Monastery. In 1992, after a fire in the Small Cathedral of Donskoy Monastery, excavations under the church floor during renovations led to the discovery of a coffin containing the incorrupt relics of St. Patriarch Tikhon in the crypt. On February 22, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' celebrated a prayer service at the Saint's coffin, and on April 5, 1992, the holy relics were ceremoniously transferred to the Great Cathedral of Donskoy Monastery. (Despite the 100% humidity in the crypt, the holy relics of Patriarch Tikhon, having lain in the ground for 67 years, were almost completely preserved. His right hand, most of his torso, part of his legs, his hair, beard, and all his bones were completely preserved.)  (Days of remembrance: February 9: the day of the uncovering of his relics; March 25: the day of his death; September 26: the day of his glorification; November 5: the day of his election to the Patriarchal throne; Patriarch Tikhon is listed in the Synaxis of Moscow Saints; Moscow and St. Petersburg Saints; and New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church).



Prayer to St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
   O our good shepherd, holy and great Patriarch Tikhon... We believe that you, standing before the Throne of the Most Holy Trinity, have great boldness in your prayers before the Lord. Look even now upon us, your sinful and unworthy children, for to you, who have great boldness before the Creator of all things, we now fall down and fervently pray: beseech the Lord, that He may give us the determination to acquire the piety of our fathers, which you have acquired from your youth. You were a zealous defender and guardian of the true faith in your life, and help us also to keep the Orthodox faith unshakably...  Amen.


Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)

   We would also like to mention Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)  (1915-1999):  Vladyka converted over three thousand people to Orthodoxy. One time, a group of young protestants, who studied the ancient confessions, asked Vladyka Basil to conduct a lecture on Orthodoxy. Two years later, the circle of those studying Orthodoxy expanded to three thousand; in time, all the students became Orthodox. The sermons conducted by Vladyka Basil in Washington were broadcast to Russian radio stations, and in Moscow as he preached live on air.
   According to the testimony of his spiritual children, Vladyka had "humbly endured all unjust oppression” and “defended his offenders when someone judged them.” He always called upon his spiritual children not to lose heart and to pray instead, pointing to the many wonderful events that would happen in his life right after a fervent prayer. He observed that sometimes, when one’s prayer is answered, people forget to thank the Lord, thinking that it is just a coincidence, yet one must thank the Lord for everything. He would say that coincidences do not just happen, citing the words of Metropolitan Anthony: "When I stop praying, coincidences stop happening."
   The Book "Unholy Saints" by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), now Metropolitan,  mentions that before taking the monastic vows, the future bishop asked his spiritual father, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh,  who was preparing him for episcopal service in America: “Whom should I be in obedience to?” He understood how to fulfil the vow of chastity and the vow of non-possession, but it was unclear to him how he would fulfil the monastic vow of obedience as a bishop, especially with respect to leading people. The wise Vladyka Anthony answered him this way: “You will be in obedience to everyone, and anyone you meet on your journey through life. As long as that person’s request is within your power to grant, and not in contradiction with the Scriptures.” For the rest of his life, Vladyka tried to fulfill this obedience.
   The following accounts are a few examples when Vladyka “gave all of himself in obedience to everyone who addressed him.” In 1988, when Vladyka Basil was going down the stairs of a five-story building, running late for the theological conference, he met an elderly woman who asked him to bring communion to her dying sister in the hospital. Despite being in a hurry for the conference, where he was to deliver a report in the presence of His Holiness the Patriarch and other prominent hierarchs, Vladyka agreed.44 When his companion objected, reminding him that they were late, Vladyka replied: “What can be more important for a priest than to bring communion to a dying man?” Despite arriving late for the conference and having his report left unheard, he remained true to himself.
   In the late 1980s, in one of his visits to Moscow, Vladyka accepted an invitation from a young priest to come serve in his parish. When it turned out that it would be necessary to go under Kostroma to the village of Gorelets, Archimandrite Tikhon, who was accompanying him at that time, began to dissuade Vladyka from going. Knowing that it would take a long time to get there, Vladyka Basil was not afraid of the journey, and so all those accompanying him had to follow him to the Russian countryside.
   On the way to Gorelets, at the crossroads of country roads, they had to stop unexpectedly. There was a truck on the side of the road, and in the middle, near an inverted motorcycle, an elderly man lay dead with his son standing over him. Vladyka came up to him and asked the boy if his father was a believer. The young man replied that his father was an Orthodox believer, and although he never went to church, he always listened to religious broadcasts from London, remarking that Rodzianko was the only person he believed. When Vladyka shared his last name, the son of the deceased was shocked. After reading the prayer for the departing soul, Vladyka said: “God’s Providence brought me here from the other end of the world, on this exact day and hour, to this crossroad, in order to give tribute to the one who believed in me, a sinner. Let us pray for his soul…” And so, they sang a requiem over the deceased. That day, Vladyka thanked the Lord for giving him the opportunity to be at that crossroad on that precise day, e to pray for the repose of the soul of a man who considered him to be his spiritual father.

   Vladyka Basil (Vladimir Mikhailovich Rodzianko) (1915-1999) was born on May 22, 1915 in a large family of Mikhail Mikhailovich Rodzianko in the estate of Otrada. (His grandfather, Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko was chairman of the third and fourth State Duma of the Russian Empire. When Basil’s grandfather became aware that by decision of the revolutionary government “the whole family, to the last grandson of the former chairman of the State Duma” was sentenced to death, he was forced to leave his homeland with his family and settle in the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.)
    In 1925, when Vladimir was ten years old, he entered the First Classical Russian-Serbian High School (Gymnasium) in Belgrade. He often served at the altar of the Russian Trinity Church in Belgrade, where he met his future spiritual mentor, Hieromonk John (Maximovitch),  future Archbishop of San Francisco, and later glorified as a Saint.7 Father John, who loved children very much, carefully healed Vladimir’s spiritual wounds. Vladyka Basil recalled: “He managed to show me another world, bright and wonderful, a kind of paradise we used to live in and from which we were expelled. A new life began for me…”
   Later, in one of his sermons, Vladyka Basil would say: “Love one another. Who knows, any drop of love for one's neighbor may lead him not to the left, but to the right side…. Love, whatever it may be, has the power to set us on the right path, and not on the left, on Judgment day, at the time of ultimate separation between good and evil. No matter how difficult this life is… if there is at least a small seed of pure and sacrificial love in the heart, then all is not lost, there is possibility for salvation.”
   Upon graduation from high school in 1933, Vladimir Rodzianko enrolled in the Department of Theology of Belgrade University, from which he graduated in 1937.  One year later, he married Mary (Maria) Kulibayeva, daughter of a priest. The same year, he began work on a dissertation at Oxford. Between 1937 and 1939, Vladimir Rodzianko continued his education at the postgraduate school at the University of London, where he studied Western religions and theology. 
   In 1939, Vladimir received his diploma. He was invited to give a course of lectures on Russian theology at Oxford. In early 1940, he had to return to Yugoslavia. That same year, he was ordained a deacon, and on March 30th, 1941, he was ordained a priest in the Russian Holy Trinity Church in Belgrade. At the end of World War II, Father Vladimir was the rector of a rural parish and secretary of the Red Cross. Through his efforts, assistance was provided to many innocents of Hungarian and German descent whose relatives lived in other countries. For this, he was arrested and charged with “subversion in aiding foreign countries.” Father Vladimir relied on God in everything, remembering the words of the Gospel of Matthew (10:19-20): “When they deliver you over, do not be anxious about how you are to speak and what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that hour, For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

Martyrdom for Faith

“If they persecuted me, they will persecute you as well” (John 15:20).
   In Serbia, after the war, icons of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the icons of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and the Savior began to appear on the windows of many houses. The authorities of Yugoslav dictator Tito began to seize and break windows with miraculous images, cruelly persecuting those who would talk about the miraculous faith-strengthening icons. Through the centuries of persecution and genocide, the Serbian people persevered.
   In July 1949, during the reign of the Communists, a miraculous icon depicting two evangelists appeared on the window in the village council of the Yugoslav village where Father Vladimir served. Many people gathered to see the unprecedented miracle15 of the Lord’s manifestation. They took the window out, and later, Father Vladimir served a prayer service in front of the miraculous image. This was followed by an arrest16 and a trial that resulted in Father Vladimir being sentenced to eight years imprisonment at hard labor for “high crime of illegal religious propaganda.”
   He shared that once, when he fell asleep in a cell after hard physical work, he saw the Most Holy Seraphim of Sarov, who, with great love, began to console him. The Reverend talked about the fact that there would be no tests beyond his powers, and those that were sent were necessary for the old man to renew. The next day, Father Vladimir woke up full of joy, with confidence in the future, and hope that through the prayers of the Reverend, the Lord would not leave his family.
On this same day, for the first time, the opportunity arose to send a letter home, and he managed to notify his wife about this wonderful vision. Later, he learned from her letter that on the same day, when Matushka Mary fervently prayed, she also saw Holy Seraphim, who comforted her, saying that he had taken Father Vladimir under his patronage. Soon after the Reverend's prayerful intercession, Matushka Mary had the opportunity to give private lessons. She had been previously dismissed from the gymnasium where she taught for being the wife of the “enemy of the people.”19
   Father Vladimir was transferred to the main prison in Yugoslavia, where he had to listen to and interpret radio programs, including those from radio station BBC in England. In 1951, Father Vladimir was prematurely released at the request of the Yugoslav authorities by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Jeffrey Fisher. Thereafter, Father Vladimir was permitted to move to Paris with his family, where his parents lived at that time.
   As the years passed, the meek Bishop Basil, remembering those days, would say that he felt his unworthiness, recalling all the miracles that were revealed to him through the prayers of St. Seraphim of Sarov.

 
   In 1953, the Orthodox Bishop Nikolai (Velimirovich),  who at that time lived in London, invited Father Vladimir to move to Great Britain and become the second priest in the Cathedral of St. Sava of Serbia  in the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Father Vladimir accepted this invitation and moved to England.
   In 1955, he received an offer to take part in the activities of the Russian-language service of the British radio station BBC and to create the program himself. As a priest of the Serbian Patriarch in Great Britain, Father Vladimir began to conduct religious radio programs on the BBC, which were broadcast to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.   For over 20 years, he led his programs, which also included holiday worship services.
   Thus began the missionary  work of the pastor, which brought Father Vladimir spiritual joy, as he had always dreamed of being useful to the Russian people. On March 5, 1978, Mother Mary departed to the Lord. Approximately 6 months after the death of his wife, in London, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom)  tonsured him into the monastic name Basil in honor of St. Basil the Great. From 1979 onward, he no longer took part in the programs on the BBC radio station.
Vladyka shared that he dreamed of a secret tonsure, but the Lord wanted him to be ordained Bishop of Washington and to become a vicar of the primate of the Orthodox Church in America. Having received a holiday certificate from Patriarch German of Serbia, he was accepted into the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church in America at the end of the year and was assigned to be the vicar of the Primate.
   On January 12th, 1980, he was ordained bishop of Washington, vicar of Metropolitan Theodosius in the St. Nicholas Cathedral of Washington, which would become the palace of his pastoral ministry. On April 25, 1984, Vladyka was dismissed. He became an honorary rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral and a confessor of the cathedral’s parishioners, who respected him greatly. Until the last day of his life, he did not know peace. Despite numerous illnesses, he remained eager to be of help to people around him and to share his spiritual experience. Until his last breath, he sought to warm everyone around him with the love given to him by the Lord. Vladyka fell asleep in the Lord on the night of Friday, September 17, 1999. Having had no money for expensive drugs and treatment, this was the day he was supposed to receive American citizenship, after which he would have been able to use free medical care.
   Vladyka Basil gave all his strength and entire spiritual experience to the service of Orthodoxy, urging everyone to learn compassionate sacrificial love, the kind which all Christians should strive for. It is said of Vladyka Basil that he was “a priest from God.” When teaching young priests, Bishop Basil would say, “Kind pastor, understand that your first pastoral step is confession. Be afraid of it, fear it, because so much depends on the word you say during the confession, to the one who has completely surrendered their human soul to you, who came under your stole. Make sure that there is never pressure on the soul, so that there is no frightening threat. Do not scare, do not terrify, and do not push on a person’s conscience and soul, but give all of yourself. To begin with, cut off your own will to demonstrate and set an example, and save with love those, who came to you to confess. The elders never enslaved anyone for anything. They saved their disciples, their spiritual children, their “lost sheep,” with love, and love is always in freedom from one side and the other. Freedom is love, love is freedom…”

"The Jesus Prayer is given to us for repentance—for those times when we dwell silently and serenely in the grace of the Spirit, amidst the deep stillness of Hesychia  that permeates all things, including our daily labor. It is ceaseless; it does not interfere with our earthly tasks, but rather sanctifies them. Any disruption of this prayerful atmosphere is always a sin, and indeed, any sin is possible only outside of it. When such a temptation arises, the Jesus Prayer becomes the ladder that leads us away from sin. Herein lies the answer to the question: ‘How is it possible to pray without ceasing?’ People often say, ‘I cannot repeat the Jesus Prayer endlessly.’ Yet there are only two ways to cease praying: either in the silent glory of the Holy Spirit, or in sin. This is the ‘Invisible Warfare.’ ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force.’" — Bishop Basil (Rodzianko)


The Athonite Elders

Preface

"Whoever believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do." (John 14:12)
"Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief." (Matthew 9:24) "God gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6)
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)

   Modern-day ascetics of piety, like the Lord's disciples, to whom the aforementioned words from the New Testament were originally addressed, were granted the gifts of the Holy Spirit after cleansing their hearts of passions. Like the glorified saints, the righteous of our day strove to keep God's commandments, possessed great faith and humility, and demonstrated love for the Lord and their neighbors.
   The elders were models of non-covetousness, kindness, and sincerity. By their own examples, they taught people true Christian love. And the miracles the Lord performed through their prayers strengthened people's faith.
   Reading testimonies of the miraculous help of saints and ascetics, we must not forget that they were merely intermediaries in the transmission of God's grace and will. Before becoming such, these ascetics struggled for years with their passions, tamed their flesh through fasting and prayer, purified themselves through sorrows and illnesses, humbly accepting all that befell them. All their gifts of grace flowed from the depths of their faith.
   Through the prayers of the righteous, the Lord seems to wish to exalt and elevate the righteous man, or rather, not the righteous man himself, but his righteousness, to exalt his virtue and moral law, and thereby endear him to others.
   The recently glorified Elder Paisios said: "Write down what you know about pious elders, for the time will come when active examples will be lacking, and the people of God will fervently seek words spoken from experience to quench their spiritual thirst." Elder Paisios's prophecy is being fulfilled in our day.
   The Holy Fathers predicted that in the last times, people would be saved by meekly enduring sorrows and illnesses. Examples from the lives of ascetics and martyrs of the twentieth century help us understand the profound meaning of this prediction and teach us the humility with which we must endure sorrows and illnesses.
   The Athonite Elder, St. Joseph the Hesychast, spoke to his spiritual children when they needed consolation: “Do not despair, our God is great; He looks upon us, observing us, and through sorrows we draw closer to Him. After the cross, God rose again. And ascended to heaven in human nature. After sorrows comes consolation, a vision and revelation of the soul that suffers; when you rejoice, consolation does not come... For every consolation was preceded by mortal sorrow—the suffocation of the soul... First, I drank sorrow by the bucketful, and then God gave me grace with a spoon.”
   Here is an excerpt from Elder Ephraim of Philotheou's remarkable book, "My Life with Elder Joseph": "His temptations were incredibly cruel, as he himself said: 'If I were to describe to you my struggle with temptations, you would not be able to bear it. For my entire life was one continuous martyrdom. But the grace of God and our Lady the Theotokos, my constant intercessor, gave me a certain persistence and steadfastness, and I did not retreat. Here, tears are most helpful and saving. But everything depends on God's grace.'" The elder Joseph told us that in great temptations, he tangibly experienced God's grace. For God responds in proportion to the magnitude of the temptation one endures for the sake of God's love.
   And when a person labors for God with good will, it is impossible for God to allow them to be tempted beyond their strength; but the reward will be proportionate. Abba Isaac the Syrian also tells us this: "When someone experiences a great temptation and asks God for deliverance from it, and is heard, then that person is deprived of grace commensurate with the magnitude of the temptation, which God has removed." This means that anyone who wants to know God's grace must be patient in temptations. With faith and trust in God, they must stand at the front, and God will be there."(Archimandrite Ephraim of Philotheou (Arizona), in the world Ioannis Moraitis (1928—2019). The famous Athonite elder, disciple of St. Joseph the Hesychast, and founder of 19 monasteries in the USA and Canada, died in the monastery of St. Anthony in Arizona, which he founded.)
"Praise God in His saints; praise Him in the strength of His power." (Psalm 150).
   Elder Ephraim of Katounakia (1912–1998) recalls his spiritual father, St. Joseph the Hesychast (1895–1959): "He saw me completely," Father Ephraim said. "He explained to me in detail everything that would happen to me until the end of my life. Now, when I see it coming true, I understand what it means to be a man of God, what it means to be a saint."
   One day after Liturgy, Father Joseph detained Father Ephraim and said to him: "I know your thoughts and your entire state. Do not be afraid. I will not leave you alone." The elder began to explain to him the essence of practice and contemplation, speaking in particular detail about the fruits of mental practice, the fruits of turning inward: "Divine grace, already dwelling in your soul, will increase as it knows how, and will become for you 'all in all' (Cf. Col. 3:11). During unexpected difficulties, it will take on various forms and help you. It will bring you peace in times of trouble, it will open your mind to understanding the mysteries of Divine Providence, those mysteries that you will encounter."
   Here is an excerpt from Elder Ephraim  of Philotheou's book, "My Life with Elder Joseph": "Father Ephraim devoted himself wholeheartedly to obedience and love for Elder Joseph. He said, 'I have never loved or feared a single person in the world so much.' He confessed his thoughts and spiritual state in detail and joyfully accepted the Elder's advice"...
Father Ephraim constantly revealed his thoughts to the Elder. Through mental prayer, his labors, and ascetic struggles, he gradually acquired an abundance of tears. He said to the Elder: "Elder, I have an abundance of tears."
   He replied: "Tears are good; they purify the soul. Now you are clearing the land, building a road so that the chariot can pass, so that grace can pass, so that the grace of Christ can come to you..."
The Elder spoke with him many times about his gift of tears. "Yes, you can find that grace through tears. Another way is mental prayer. Mental prayer is higher than tears, and if tears come during mental prayer, leave them alone and hold on to the prayer. Tears weaken mental prayer. Mental prayer is greater than tears. It allows a person to see grace..."
Later, Father Ephraim confessed: "What I found with Elder Joseph was found through his prayer, through what he, as a mentor, said: "Pray in this way, say it this way. When things get difficult, don't say the whole prayer. Say only half..."
   Elder Joseph of Vatopedi (1921–2009) recalls St. Joseph the Hesychast (1895–1959):
"On August 19, 1949, at noon after lunch, I was about to go to my cell, as per the rite. But the Elder stopped him, squeezed his hand, and said with a smile, 'Today I will send you a package. Be careful not to lose it.'"
   He himself recounted what happened to him that evening: "I don't remember how I began the vigil, but I know well that before I had even uttered the Name of Christ a few times, my heart was filled with love for God. Suddenly, it grew so strong that I no longer prayed, but marveled in amazement at the superabundance of this love. I wanted to embrace and kiss all people and all creation, and at the same time, I thought of myself so humbly that I felt inferior to every creature. However, the fullness and flame of my love was directed toward Christ, Whom I sensed near me, but could not see, so as to fall at His Most Pure Feet and ask Him how He so enflames hearts while remaining hidden and unknown. I then had a subtle intimation that this was the grace of the Holy Spirit and that this was the Kingdom of Heaven, of which Our Lord speaks, that it is within us. And I said, "My Lord, let everything remain as it is now, and I need nothing more. " This continued for quite a long time, and gradually I returned to my former state. And with anxiety and impatience, I awaited the appropriate hour to go to the Elder and ask him what it was and how it had happened. It was August 20th, the full moon was shining, when I ran to him and found him pacing the small courtyard outside his cell. Seeing me, the Elder smiled and, before I bowed to him, said, "Have you seen how sweet our Christ is?" Have you truly understood what it is you so persistently asked me about? Now compel yourself to make this grace your own, and don't let negligence steal it from you…
   When I told him exactly what had happened to me and asked him about the reasons for it, he humbly declined to tell me about it and replied, "God has taken pity on you and pardoned you, showing you His grace in advance, so that you would not doubt the words of the holy fathers and not become fainthearted."
   I then understood the meaning of the common custom of asking others to pray for us with complete faith and trust: "Pray, Father, for me too! Pray for me, Father! Remember me, Father, in your prayer!"
   Of course, we Christians ask the righteous for help in our needs in many ways. And each one receives an appropriate response. But for a person to understand the need of a certain soul, knowing its state, and to say imperatively: " ‘Go and try to get what I send you, what you need"- and to know what he is sending and whether this package was received - all this goes beyond the boundaries of the ordinary and refers to supernatural events ... "
   Many spiritual children of Elders report that their spiritual mentors also help them from the world above.

Glorious is God in His saints!

   According to legend, when the Most Holy Theotokos set foot on the Athos peninsula, the pagan temples built by the local inhabitants collapsed. By God's providence, this land was destined to grow the flowers of the Athonite elders, so that their fragrance would spread throughout the world, reminding people of the miraculous intercession of the inhabitants of the heavenly world, the great gifts of the Holy Spirit, the boundless mercy of God, and the eternal values without which life on earth would be impossible.
   The Patroness of Athos, the Abbess of the Holy Mountain, continues to assist all who call for help with faith. Let us quote the words of Elder Daniel of Katounakia: "He who has distinguished himself in chastity and holiness and has been granted all the various spiritual gifts has become worthy of them thanks to the protection of our Lady, the Theotokos." The Athonite elder Athanasius advised: "Train yourself to read the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos with exceptional devotion, and over time you will see how much grace will be poured out upon you—such, I tell you, as you have never experienced..."
   Mount Athos abounds with communal monasteries and sketes, and hermits also live here. Currently, there are 20 men's monasteries on Mount Athos, many sketes, and individual kalivas . Since ancient times, those seeking to escape the bustle of the world have come here to be healed of passions and vices, washed with tears of repentance, and to pray in solitude for the salvation of not only their own souls, the souls of their loved ones, but also for the salvation of the entire world. Arriving on the Holy Mountain, future ascetics first sought a spiritual father, an elder, under whose wise guidance they could grow spiritually, cutting off their own will in everything, humbly and patiently fulfilling obedience, lest they become arrogant through excessive asceticism and fall into the enemy's clutches.
   From the teachings of Elder Ephraim of Katounakia: "...The first thing we must pay attention to is finding a good elder. For us, a 'good' one is not someone renowned, someone honored by the world or the place where they live, but someone with experience and spiritual life, someone who has proven by their life that they love God and uphold His will. Such elders can bring success, and those who submit themselves to them have found the guarantee of their salvation..."
   According to St. Silouan the Athonite, elders experienced in spiritual life, when asked for spiritual advice, spoke not from their own mind. An elder to whom the truth was revealed became a direct guide and indicator of God's will for his spiritual child.
   There are no age criteria; what matters is spiritual maturity, adorned with humility, meekness, and patience, strong faith, and love. Those who, having passed trials with dignity, were deemed worthy to attain all this, were granted the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was upon them that the cross of eldership was placed from above, for only such ascetics were capable of exemplifying with their entire lives immeasurable love for God, selfless service to one's neighbor, and teaching repentance and the observance of God's commandments. The Holy Fathers who shone forth on Mount Athos left a rich spiritual legacy for modern monks. Many Athonite monks of the twentieth century, like their ancient predecessors, were great ascetics. We will mention only a few of our contemporaries, continuers of the traditions of the Athonite elders.
   Reading about the ascetic lives of modern ascetics, one is always amazed at the height of their achievement. St. John Climacus, explaining the significance of physical deprivation, wrote: "...Withered flesh does not provide a vessel for demons." Archimandrite Cherubim writes in his book "Modern Elders of Mount Athos": "St. Gregory the Sinaite, who arrived on Mount Athos in the fourteenth century, lit the flame of hesychasm  there." He began to teach divinely inspired asceticism, when, through the complete liberation of the mind from vanity, contemplation, and prayer of the mind and heart, the soul is prepared for spiritual union with God...” This flame, passed down from generation to generation, burned in the souls of the elders discussed in this section, and they succeeded in passing it on to their spiritual children. By God's grace, we too now have the opportunity not only to warm our souls but also to preserve this warmth and light, so that, as the Athonite elders urged, it may shine for others.

 
Saint Iosif the Hesychast

St. Joseph the Hesychast  (1897- 1959) was one of the greatest Elders of the Holy Mountain in the twentieth century – a spiritual mentor of many Athonite monks.

   St Joseph the Hesychast (secular name Frangiskos Kottis) was born on the island of Paros, in the village of Lefka, on November 2, 1897.   Frangiskos's parents, Georgios and Maria, were simple workers. They raised their children to love God and their neighbors. When Frangiskos was still an infant, God revealed to Maria his future destiny. In a miraculous vision, an angel wrote down her son's name, explaining that it was the will of the Heavenly King. She was frightened, but later realized that he was God's chosen one and destined to serve the Lord. In 1907, Maria became a widow, raising six children alone. The Lord did not abandon her; the older children cared for the younger ones, helped her with the household whenever possible, and began earning extra money early on.
   Francis did not complete his schooling; in 1914, he left for the Athenian port of Piraeus in search of work. Initially, he worked as a cook and then as a tram conductor.
   He was then called up for military service. After being discharged, he went into a trade. At the age of twenty-three, he enjoyed reading spiritual literature in his free time. A strong desire arose within him to emulate the monks of Mount Athos as much as possible. In 1921, he met an Athonite monk whose advice helped him choose the monastic path. He soon departed for Mount Athos.
Francis searched long for an experienced spiritual father, similar to those he had read about in books, who could guide him through words and the example of his own life.
   He was fortunate to converse with the renowned ascetic Elder Daniel of Katounakia , Elder Kallinikos , and with the strict ascetics Elder Gerasimos, ninety, and Ignatius, ninety-five, who prayed the Jesus Prayer incessantly and whose lips were fragrant. But due to their age, they were reluctant to take on the cross of mentoring. He asked them how they prayed, what they ate, and learned about their daily routines. He later recounted how these holy fathers helped him with their advice. It's possible that it was through their prayers, and those of Elder Daniel of Katounakia, that he soon acquired uninterrupted recitation of the Jesus Prayer. He settled into a cave, prayed, made brooms, brought them to the monastery, received rusks as a blessing, and then retreated to the cave again. Sometimes he sought advice from Elder Daniel of Katounakia, who warned him of the dangers that beset hermits and advised him to find a monk with whom he could live together in a secluded place and to come to the monastery for confession and Liturgy.
   The life of a hermit, struggling with evil spirits, was filled with suffering. When he was exhausted, God's grace sustained him. Despite eating only dry bread and drinking very little water, and praying all night, Francis was subjected to attacks . He carried a stick, and he mercilessly beat himself with it, especially on his thighs and calves.
   In this struggle, Francis repeatedly received help from the Blessed Virgin Mary and realized that the Mother of God greatly loved purity. Therefore, he fought against carnal passion. He said, "I cannot describe to you how the Mother of God loves chastity and purity." He wept, sighed, and implored the Lady Theotokos, who often consoled him.
   During those years, the Lord not only tested His chosen one to see if he was ready to become a true monk and warrior of Christ. He also gave him the opportunity to gain invaluable experience in fighting the forces of evil, and courage, so that later in adulthood he could share this with his spiritual children. And the awareness of his own helplessness would help him avoid becoming arrogant when he received the well-deserved reward of spiritual attainment.
   Father Ephraim recalled that Elder Joseph himself confessed: "If God's grace abandons me, I will commit the worst crimes, because we contain all the seeds, both good and bad. Whatever prevails in a person will dominate them. How many people have cast out demons and then fallen."
   Extract from the book, by Elder Ephraim of Arizona, "My Elder Joseph the Hesychast":" Francis had the custom of sitting in the desert for two or three hours every evening, weeping inconsolably until the ground beneath him became wet with tears. He would then recite the Jesus Prayer with his lips. He didn't yet know how to recite it mentally, and he asked the Most Holy Theotokos and the Lord to grant him the grace to recite it mentally, as he had learned from the Philokalia. One evening at sunset he looked at the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and prayed with tears: “Lord, as You were transfigured before Your disciples, be transformed in my soul, quench the passions, calm my heart. Grant prayer to the one praying and restrain my uncontrollable mind!”
   And as he painfully uttered this, a gentle, fragrant breeze came from the temple and filled his soul with joy, light, and divine love. And unceasing prayer began to flow from his heart with such sweetness and bliss that he thought, "This is paradise! I need no other paradise." Francis saw himself as two different people: one on the outside, and another on the inside, who recited the prayer with mathematical precision, like a clock. And the amazing thing was that he continued to recite it without any effort of his own. As soon as Francis realized this, he was amazed and said, "What just happened to me? How am I saying the prayer? I've been trying so hard for so long and yet I couldn't achieve it."
   Until now, he had been searching for prayer like a blind man. He had read and heard about the light of mental prayer. He believed it existed, and so he had a great thirst for this light. And now, seeing that the prayer was unceasing and he was experiencing bliss and pleasure, Francis said: "So this is what the mental prayer I read about in ascetic books is! This is what it tastes like! This is what this light is!"
   Thus, the All-Merciful Lord answered the young ascetic's fervent prayer and soon helped him find a like-minded companion, the young monk Arseny, who became his companion until the end of his life.
   Extract from the book, by Elder Ephraim: «It is impossible to speak of Elder Joseph without also speaking of the Venerable Father Arseny, for after they met, they lived together like brothers until the grave. They were never separated, never spoke a cold word to each other, never allowed any shadow to lie between them. Father Arseny did not have the keen intellect of Elder Joseph... Despite his blessed simplicity, Father Arseny proved himself a great ascetic, a perfect novice, a heavenly man, and an experienced man of prayer—in a word, a true hesychast...
   Father Arseny, in the world Anastasios Galanopoulos, was born in 1886 in Samsun, on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, to a very pious family. When he was only twelve years old, the brutal persecution of Christians by the Turks forced his family to move to Orthodox Russia, to the Caucasus… Around 1910, after many adventures and hardships, Anastasius finally reached Jerusalem. He was then twenty-four years old... Finally, he became a monk at the Monastery of Saint Sava the Sanctified, receiving the name Anatoly. Despite his almost childlike simplicity, he was distinguished by fervent faith and a strong desire for prayer. The abbot assigned Anatoly the duties of a storekeeper...
   He had already heard of the great gift of mental prayer. The fathers he knew told him that if he wanted to acquire it, he should go to Mount Athos. Upon hearing of Athos, Father Anatoly said to a fellow Pontian monk, "Let's go to Mount Athos and become ascetics." And, receiving the abbot's blessing, they set out.
   They departed in 1918 on the newly opened railway from Jerusalem to Alexandria, with the intention of sailing from there to Constantinople. From this city, ships sailed to the Holy Mountain.
   In Constantinople, they had to obtain permission for further travel from the Turkish authorities... Having received the necessary papers, they set off for the Holy Mountain...Finally, Father Anatoly reached Athos. (He arrived in Daphne, the main port of the Holy Mountain.) Failing to find anyone who would teach him the prayer of the mind, Father Anatoly remained at Stavronikita Monastery. It was a monastery of special habitation: everyone could live as they wished… After living for several years in Stavronikita, Father Arseny once heard that a certain ascetic had acquired mental prayer and was living in a cave beneath a rock. He prayed to Saint Nicholas, saying, "Father Nicholas, if I find him, even though I don't know whether it's a sin or not, I will go and live with him, since he has mental prayer." And God informed him. He clearly heard a voice: "Arseny, flee and save yourself," just as Saint Arseny the Great had been informed. Father Arseny threw his clothes out the window, went outside the monastery gates, picked them up, and left unnoticed.
   He went to Katounaki, to Elder Daniel, and said to him: Father Arseny threw his clothes out the window, went outside the monastery gates, picked them up, and left unnoticed. He went to Katounaki, to Elder Daniel, and said to him, "I want to find a man with mental prayer and labor with him..."
…Father Arseny (1885-1983) later recounted, “I wanted Elder Joseph to be my elder and mentor, even though I was older. He had intelligence, but I did not. He was an expert, a theorist. I was a practitioner. Once, two men wanted to cross a river: one blind, the other legless. The blind man lifted the legless man, but he had eyes, onto his shoulders, and thus they crossed. Elder Joseph had the eyes of his mind open, but he lacked sufficient physical strength. I, a practitioner, have legs, but not the eyes of wisdom. I am not a theologian. I took him on my back, he led me—and thus we crossed the river of this life.” (Thus, by the grace of God and the elder's blessing, the ascetic spiritual brothers began to serve the Lord together, and over time, a brotherhood formed around them...Elder Joseph inherited the rules of monastic life and the daily routine of the community from Elder Daniel the Hesychast .)


   Extract from the book, by Elder Ephraim:  "Francis had already lived on the Holy Mountain for two years, about nine of them with Father Arsenios, when the wise Elder Daniel of Katounakia said to them: "This won't do any good. Listen to what I tell you. Here on the Holy Mountain, there is one unbreakable rule: bury an Elder, and you become an Elder. But living the way you do, willfully, is no good... Without the blessing of some Elder, nothing good will come of it... Here, next door, in the Annunciation cell, lives two elders. One is named Ephraim, and the other Joseph. They won't live long, five to ten years at most. If you accept their blessing, you will live as you wish. Then you can do whatever you want. Go to their obedience and care for them, and when they die, you will become a legitimate Elder."
   Since both ascetics were filled with zeal to follow the will of God, they accepted this advice without any hesitation... They went and surrendered themselves in obedience to these Elders. "
   So they did go to these fathers and were received with joy. Elder Ephraim blessed Francis and Father Arseny to pray as much as they could and to confess to the spiritual father they preferred.
   Extract from the book, by Elder Ephraim of Arizona, "My Elder Joseph the Hesychast":" One day, a monk from Crete, who lived nearby in Katounaki, began shouting and cursing at Elder Ephraim, completely unfairly, over some misunderstanding regarding the boundary between their plots of land... Young Francis, whose passions were still alive, flared with anger. He wanted to rush out and put the monk in his place, who was needlessly insulting the elder. "If I go out now, I'll get him," he thought. Indignation and anger boiled within him, for he was naturally very angry... But as soon as Francis realized that if he went out—and it was terrifying to imagine what might happen—he restrained himself and immediately ran to the Church of the Annunciation. There, he fell to the ground and began calling on the Most Holy Theotokos to restrain him from extremes: "Help me, Mother of God! Don't let me rush out! Help me, my Christ, save me, for if I jump out now, I don't know what will happen. Help me, save me, calm this passion!"
   Crying and sobbing, weeping hot tears on the ground, he saw that the passion of anger had subsided, that he had calmed down, and that clarity of mind had returned. Only then did Francis come out and settle the matter with great love and kindness: "Now, enough, enough! We didn't come here to own kalivas, olive trees, and rocks. We came here for our souls, for love. If we lose love, we lose God. "Will we become a laughingstock to angels, men, and the whole world?" And the monk calmed down.
   St Joseph the Hesychast, when he told his spiritual children about this later, confessed to them: "If I hadn't controlled my anger that day, I might have killed that monk, for I had so much courage and strength that I could have taken on ten and overcome them. That was my first victory at the beginning of my novice's life. From then on, I felt that the anger and rage within me had diminished and no longer had their former strength. Meekness began to warm my heart."
   The young ascetics Francis and Arsenios did not live long as novices with the elders; Elder Joseph soon departed to the Lord, and they looked after Elder Ephraim for about seven years. They first lived at Katounakia and later, in 1928, they moved higher up the mountain to the Skete of St. Basil.  This move came about in their desire for more solitude and to have their hesychastic way of life continue without disturbance.  Elder Ephraim, was soon convinced by the exceptional lifestyle of young Francis that he should be officially enrolled in the angelic monastic order. The day of his monastic tonsure was set for Sunday, August 31, 1925, the commemoration day of the deposition of the precious sash of the Theotokos. His tonsure took place in the cave of Saint Athanasios the Athonite; he received the name Joseph.
   Soon after the move, Elder Ephraim reposed; before his death, he blessed the young ascetics. The young Father Joseph became Elder; he didn't want to become a hieromonk,
 so as not to have to worry about the regular services at the skete and to be able to devote himself to prayer without distraction. He wanted to be a hesychast. In 1935, hieromonk Ephraim began to come to Elder Joseph at the Liturgy, and he soon became his spiritual son. Elder Joseph did not allow anyone except Father Ephraim to serve at the Liturgy and rejoiced in the atmosphere that was created during the Liturgy .
   Before founding his own community, the Elder fully experienced the grace of silence. Their food consisted of a handful of vermicelli with lemon or a spoonful of oil, if they had it. They strove to make three thousand prostrations every day and fought sleep, so as to spend the entire night in prayer. The elder later told his spiritual children: "The Jesus Prayer, through pain, gives birth to sorrow. Sorrow brings tears. Tears, in turn, give birth to a purer prayer. For tears, like fragrant myrrh, wash away impurity, and the soul is cleansed."
   In 1929, Elder Joseph traveled outside the Holy Mountain for the first time in eight years. He went to Athens to tonsure his mother. Father Arsenios went with him. Elder Joseph and Father Arsenios also took advantage of their time in the world to visit Father Arsenios's relatives, who had by then settled in the city of Drama. Among these relatives was Father Arsenios's nineteen-year-old nephew, Charalampos, who later became a monk in Elder Joseph's community.
   Father Joseph and Father Arsenios then visited some of the people with whom Elder Joseph had corresponded in Thessaloniki. There, he became acquainted with several pious widows, whom Elder Joseph later tonsured as nuns. From the Holy Mountain, he sent them letters  with instructions on prayer. Soon of his brotherhood would consist of disciples: Father Athanasios, his brother in the flesh; Father Joseph the Cypriot, who would later become the Geronda of the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi; Father Ephraim, later abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou and future geronda of thirty-three monasteries in Greece, the USA, and Canada, including Saint Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona; and Father Haralambos, later abbot of the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou.
   It should be noted that Saint Ephraim of Katounakia, although he belonged to a different brotherhood, was guided spiritually by Saint Joseph, and thus is also considered one of his disciples. In 1938, seeking greater solitude, Saint Joseph and his community moved from Saint Basil’s Skete to a cave at Little Saint Anne’s, but after 15 years of living in the harsh conditions of Little Saint Anne’s, the fathers’ health started to deteriorate, and so in 1953, Saint Joseph decided to move the community farther down the mountain, near the sea, to New Skete, where he would spend the last six years of his life. Thus the saint fell asleep in the Lord, on August 15, 1959, the day the Orthodox Church celebrates the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. He was glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on October 20, 2019.
   From the memoirs of Father Ephraim of Philotheou's book, "My Life with Elder Joseph": " Our Elder was an experienced man and a profound expert on spiritual life. When we came to him for confession at night, he often took the initiative and explained each of our problems and how to resolve them in detail before we even told him what was troubling us. In other words, he knew our inner state and explained how it arose and how we should work with it, whether it concerned thoughts, passions, or the action of grace... He could read our thoughts with a glance. For, on the one hand, he had the gift of clairvoyance, and on the other, vast ascetic experience. We marveled at how he knew our inner world so well, while we ourselves found it difficult to describe...With our own eyes, we saw many times that the Elder possessed the gift of clairvoyance…
   The Elder told us that in great temptations he tangibly experienced the grace of God. For God responds to a person in proportion to the magnitude of the temptation he endures for the sake of God's love. And when a person labors for God with good will, it is impossible for God to allow him to be tempted beyond his strength. But the reward from God will be commensurate. Abba Isaac the Syrian also tells us about this: 'When someone experiences a great temptation and asks God for deliverance from it, and is heard, then this person is deprived of grace proportionate to the magnitude of the temptation, which God has taken away.' This means that one who truly desires to know the grace of God must show patience in temptations. With faith and trust in God, he must hold the front, and God is at his side."
  In conclusion, we note that Father Sophrony (Sakharov) , the author of a book about the life of another Athonite Elder, Saint Silouan, greatly revered the Elder Joseph. Father Sophrony personally sought him out and visited him. He said that Elder Joseph was one of the greatest ascetics he knew on the Holy Mountain.

A Prayer by Saint Joseph the Hesychast
O Master, our sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, send forth Your grace and free me from the bonds of sin. Enlighten the darkness of my soul, so that I may comprehend Your infinite mercy, and so that I may love and thank You worthily, my sweetest Savior, Who is worthy of all love and gratitude. Yes, my good Benefactor and most merciful Lord; do not withdraw Your mercy from me, but have compassion upon Your creature. I acknowledge, O Lord, the weight of my transgressions, but I am also aware of Your inexhaustible mercy. I behold the darkness of my insensitive soul, but I have good hope and await for Your divine illumination and the deliverance from the evil deeds and destructive passions, through the intercession of Your sweetest Mother, our Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, and of all the Saints. Amen.

Venerable Silouan the Athonite

   In 1866, in the village of Shovskoye, Lebedinsky District, Tambov Province, a boy was born into the pious family of a peasant named Ivan Antonov. At baptism, the child was named Simeon. The large and close-knit family lived in poverty, but the father loved to offer hospitality to travelers. He would talk with them about God .
   From childhood, Simeon worked alongside his elders, assisting his father in the fields as best he could, and his brothers with construction work on the estate. The Antonov family's life was inextricably linked with the church; their whose attendance instilled in Simeon a sense of reverence for the word of God from infancy, nurturing him in the spirit of Christian humility and other virtues. Several years later, the young man began asking his parents to allow him to enter a monastery; he wanted to take monastic vows at the Pechersk Lavra. His father insisted that his son first enlist in the military and only then decide what his future calling would be.
   Simeon served his military service in St. Petersburg. In the army, Simeon never forgot God and offered spiritual advice to his fellow soldiers. He often thought about the monastic life and, wishing to somehow help the monastery's inhabitants, sent his savings to Mount Athos several times. Shortly before completing his military service, Simeon decided to go to Mount Athos, but first to ask for the prayers and blessing of the now-glorified Father John of Kronstadt. Not finding him there, he left a note with the words: "Father, I want to become a monk; please pray that the world does not detain me. "
   Simeon stayed at home for only one week. Having gathered gifts for the monastery and necessities for the journey, he said goodbye to everyone and set off for Athos. In the autumn of 1892, the young man arrived on Mount Athos and was accepted as a novice at the Russian Monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.
   The novice’s life at the monastery was simple: at first, his obedience was hard labor at the mill, then he worked as a steward, later he managed the workshops, the food warehouse, and, in his later years, the store.  Having undergone the initial monastic ordeals, he was tonsured into the mantia in 1896 with the name Silouan, and in 1911, into the schema, retaining his former name.
   He had no disciples of his own and was not obedient to any particular elder. "It is difficult to live without an Elder," he later said. "An inexperienced soul does not understand the will of God, and it will endure many sorrows before it learns humility." He himself, like most monks, was raised in the atmosphere of the spiritual tradition common to the monks of Athos, spending his days in unceasing Jesus Prayer, lengthy church services, fasting and vigils, frequent Confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, reading spiritual books, and labor.
   Having lived forty-six years in a monastery with a cenobitic rule, the ascetic never sought seclusion; when among people, he managed to guard his mind and heart from extraneous thoughts. He prayed often and fervently, resorting primarily to the Jesus Prayer, which soon entered his heart after fervent prayer before the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
   One day, the Appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ brought him the joy of Easter, the Resurrection... Elder Silouan wrote: “A soul that has come to know God cannot be satisfied with anything on earth, but strives for the Lord and cries out like a little child who has lost its mother: my soul longs for You, and I tearfully seek You.”
   Constantly engaged in ascetic labor, he abstained from everything and anything that could hinder the acquisition of grace: he slept little, in snatches, up to two hours a day, sitting on a stool; he made no concessions in fasting and limited himself in food, advising those who turned to him "to eat so much that after eating you want to pray"; he cut off his will, believing that this brings "great benefit" to the soul. It yearns, prays, cries, struggling to retain grace, but the Divine light, if it returns, is short-lived, and then, as before, leaves the novice again.
   Fifteen years had passed since the Lord's appearance to Elder Silouan. His mind was again darkened by spiritual warfare. The ascetic later spoke of the mental pain he endured during this time: "If the Lord had not first given me to understand how much He loves man, I would not have endured even one such night, and I had many."
   On one such night, he cried out with a contrite heart: "Lord, You see that I want to pray to You with a pure mind, but the demons prevent me. Teach me what I must do so that they do not hinder me!" "The proud always suffer so from demons," was his reply. "Lord, teach me what I must do so that my soul may be humbled?"
   And again, God's answer resounded in his heart: "Keep your mind in hell and do not despair." According to the elder, the Lord took pity on him and Himself taught him how the soul should humble itself and become impregnable to enemies: when sinful thoughts approach, it recognizes itself as worthy of eternal torment and descends into hell, so that by the power of hellish flames it can burn out the action of every passion within itself and turn to the Lord with pure prayer, trusting in the saving action of Christ's love and thereby avoiding despair. For his great humility, the Lord granted Elder Silouan the ability to see with spiritual vision what is hidden to others. The Elder, without speaking to a person, knew about their secret sins or doubts, as evidenced by the recollections of his contemporaries. 
    According to Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), Silouan often consoled those who came to him in a state of deep despondency, "seeing through" the root of their spiritual sorrow. Deep secrets of people began to be revealed to the ascetic, so he called on everyone to embark on the path of saving repentance.    One day, a young Catholic, who had heard much about the elder, arrived on Mount Athos and wanted to "test" the ascetic's abilities. Upon meeting the elder, he asked him permission to read spiritual books in the library. The kind elder did not rebuke the cunning guest, but allowed him to enter the library. But when he left the library, Elder Silouan told him of his sins, mentioning the secret intention with which he had come to the Holy Mountain. The visitor was so astonished that he not only repented but also soon converted to Orthodoxy.   "The world stands by prayer," Elder Silouan asserted, "and when prayer weakens, the world will perish." In this prayerful intensity, he attained an inner state in which he foresaw events and foresaw the future of man, revealing the deep secrets of his soul and calling everyone to embark on the path of saving repentance. Unceasing prayer did not abandon the ascetic until the last hour. On September 24, 1938, schemamonk Silouan died peacefully. Elder Silouan was glorified at the end of November 1987. The feast day of St. Silouan the Athonite is September 11/24.
 

Saint Porphyrios Kavsokalyvitis

   Elder Porphyrios (in the world Evangelos Ba;raktaris) (1906-1991) was born in 1906 in the village of Agios Ioannis in Karystia province on Euboea and was baptised as Evangelos. He spent only two years at school. His family’s poverty forced him to earn his keep by tending the few animals that his family owned. A little later, as a young boy of about nine, he worked in the local coal mine and then in a grocer’s store in Piraeus. 
   It should be noted that from the age of eight after he read a booklet about the life of St. John Kalyvitis,he filled a strong desire to lead a life like his. Thus, when he was about twelve years old, he secretly left on his own for Mount Athos and on a ship on the way there met the man who would soon become his elder, the hieromonk and spiritual confessor Panteleimon, who lived as an ascetic in the kaliyva of St. George at the Skete of Kafsokalyvia on Mount Athos.
   He was tonsured as a monk at the age of fourteen and received the name Niketas. After two years he was tonsured into the Great Schema. A little later, God granted him the gift of clairvoyance. At the age of nineteen, the Elder became seriously ill, which forced him to leave the Holy Mountain. Then he returned to Euboia, where he lived in the Monastery of Saint Charalambos at Leuka. In 1926, at the age of twenty, he was ordained as a priest at Saint Charalampos of Kymi by Porphyrios III, the Archbishop of Sinai, who gave him the name Porphyrios. At the age of twenty-two he became a Spiritual Father and Confessor. Shortly thereafter, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite. Then he worked for a time as a parish priest at Tsakaioi, a village of Euboia.
   Father Porphyrios lived for twelve years in the Holy Monastery of Saint Charalampos, and then for three years at Ano Bathia, in the deserted Saint Nicholas Monastery. In 1940, Elder Porphyrios was sent to Athens, where took up his duties as a priest and a Spiritual Father at the Athens Polyclinic. He lived there for thirty-three years, devoting himself completely to his spiritual work of relieving the pain of his patients. In 1955 he settled in Kall;sia, where he had leased Saint Nicholas Monastery from the Holy Monastery of Penteli, along with the rural area that surrounded it. In the summer of 1979, he settled in Milesi. At first, he lived in a trailer under adverse conditions, then later in a huge cell of concrete blocks. For many years he dreamed of building a monastery. In 1984 he moved into a room in a monastery which was being built. Even though the Elder was very sick and blind, he worked unceasingly and tirelessly to complete the work. When the cornerstone of the catholicon of the Monastery of the Transfiguration was laid on February 26, 1990, he was able to see his dream come true.
   The main characteristics of Elder Porphyrios’s character were his extreme humility, his perfect love for Christ and his fellow men, his uncomplaining patience of unbearable pain, his wise discernment, his   inexhaustible love of hard work, and his constant prayers. Out of compassion for his neighbors, he asked the Lord for cancer; through his prayers, cancer patients were healed. He suffered from this disease voluntarily.
   According to St. Porphyrios , "cancer is the best disease." Because people do not take other ailments seriously, and therefore, usually, they do not change internally at all…But with oncological diseases, people begin to realize the severity of their situation, and that the only hope is for the mercy of God… And those who cling to this hope, begin to pray, repent, change their way of life, attitude to others – and are saved.
   Based on the materials in the book "St. Porphyry – the Prophet of our Generation": "The great medicine is to devote oneself to the zealous service of Christ," the elder said. – Everything heals, everything starts working normally. The love of God changes everything, transforms everything, sanctifies, corrects and makes it different. Our soul will receive great consolation if it longs for Christ…
   The Elder Porphyrios said: "At the time when we surrender to Christ, then our spiritual organism comes into a peaceful arrangement, as a result of which all organs and glands begin to function naturally. They all depend on our dispensation. Then we recover, we stop suffering… This also happens in the case of cancer: if we put our care on God, and our soul calms down, then Divine grace, coupled with this world, can act in such a way that cancer and everything else will go away. If you don't know, for example, a stomach ulcer occurs due to neurosis."
   Elder often pointed out to people who did not have the patience to endure illness with humility, who persistently asked him to pray only for their deliverance from a bodily ailment, that they should first of all realize the illness of their soul. He drew their attention to the fact that sin darkened their eyes and they did not notice the supreme enlightening significance of their bodily illness, which the love of God allowed them. The ascetic always tried to combine the treatment of the body with the treatment of the soul.
   He said that the only attitude that befits people created in the image and likeness of God, therefore, is love – opening one’s heart to others, both to God and to one’s fellow men.
"When you are in an extremely dark room don’t hit out at the darkness to make it go away. That’s not how it disappears. Open the window and let in the light; in other words, submit yourself to the love of Christ and then the darkness will disappear effortlessly.”
   Elder Porphyrios loved everyone with Christ’s love, which falls upon the person who is loved in the form of a great and boundless joy. The person who loves feels joy because loving means giving and giving is a blessing, as the Lord Himself said (It is more blessed to give than to receive – Acts 20: 35).
   He dreamed of ending his life on the Holy Mountain, which he was forced to leave in his youth due to health reasons . By Divine Providence, he was called upon to spiritually assist many people in Greece and to found a monastery. Having fulfilled his calling, he returned to Athos at the end of his life.
   In June 1991, sensing his death, and not wanting to be buried with honors, he left for the hut of Saint George at Kavsokaliva, where he had been tonsured as a monk 70 years before. At 4:31 on the morning of December 2, 1991, he delivered his soul to the Lord  . The Canonization of Elder Porphyrios took place during the session of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on November 27, 2013.
   Elder Porphyrios possessed many unique gifts, including the gift of healing the sick through prayer and the ability, by the grace of God, to accurately determine a person's illness and what triggered it. The elder could make an unmistakable diagnosis simply by looking at a person or feeling their hand. Sometimes the illness manifested itself later, requiring doctors considerable time to make a correct diagnosis. Through the prayers of the holy elder, the Lord granted healing to many cancer patients. For some patients, doctors were unable to help them, but upon learning later of their healing through the elder's prayers, they agreed it was a miracle. Thus, people far removed from the faith embraced the Orthodox faith and later became the elder's spiritual children.
   The author of the book "The Smiling Saint," Georgios Kroustalakis, noted that Elder Porphyrios said that sometimes pain, illness, and the process of healing serve a special, profound purpose—unclear at first, but gradually revealed. Indeed, the sudden illness of Elder Porphyrios's spiritual daughter, Athena, and her miraculous healing led her attending physician to deep faith.
   Excerpt from the book "The Smiling Saint"  :
   "In 1986, Athena felt severe pain in her hip... When the elder saw her, he 'diagnosed' a tumor in her hip and advised her to go to London to see an oncologist... Before leaving, he blessed Athena and made the sign of the cross over the affected part of her hip three times.
   In London, she was admitted to the University Hospital, where Professor Smith, a world famous oncologist, took over her treatment... One day, the English professor was struck by an inexplicable imprint of a cross of light on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of Athena's ailing hip... He turned to Athena for an explanation, and she told him that the cross of light was none other than the "imprint" on her bone of the blessing of her spiritual father, Elder Porphyrios, whose prayer accompanies her here in London... The treatment was an unexpected success: as Elder Porphyrios predicted, no surgery was required... When Athena returned, Elder Porphyrios told her: "This weakness in your hip, my child, was an occasion for glorifying the name of God. This illness and the trip to London happened only for Professor Smith: he became Orthodox!"
   According to the testimony of the ascetic's contemporaries, Elder Porphyrios himself suffered from many illnesses simultaneously, but never asked the Lord to heal him. He said: "I am ashamed. How can I ask God for something like this? The saint patiently bore the heavy cross of illness until the end of his days, accepting pain with gratitude, with the "patience and faith of the saints" (Rev. 13:10).
   The Elder often told his spiritual children: "We receive much benefit from illness if we endure it without complaining, but glorifying God, asking for His mercy... God's grace is the only power that changes a person, transforming them spiritually and physically. Its foundation is spiritual health, and it can be preserved only through trust in God, evangelical Love, and a life of joy and simplicity of heart (Acts 2:46). Such a life frees us from the stress of modern life and gives us physical strength..."
   Elder Porphyrios loved Christ boundlessly, constantly glorifying the Creator. He advised many sick people to accept everything with peace of mind, to fear nothing, to trust in God's mercy and the wise Providence of the Lord. The ascetic spoke to those suffering, frightened by a terrible diagnosis: "Cancer mostly strikes confused souls... You must surrender yourself completely to God's hands, calm down, find peace, love the world, love everything and everyone. So that your entire being becomes love and praise to God. When you cling to Him and your soul is at peace, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of your body will calm down. And then the cancer, if not cured, will at least stop where it is..."
   According to the testimony of his spiritual children, Elder Porphyrios wanted to find a cure for cancer and asked God to reveal to him what this substance was. The Lord revealed to him that it was a substance that doctors constantly use… But the elder never told anyone what this substance was… He was told why God does not give this cure to people, because many fear the disease. Specifically, this disease should lead to true, deep faith, boundless love for God and people, and complete trust in God's wise Providence.
   The Elder urged cancer patients to overcome their fear, saying, "It's not the pain that kills you, but your own fear of pain… Illness is a spiritual sacrament. It is a chance given to us to strive for Grace.
   Illnesses bring enormous benefit to the soul; we only need to endure them without complaint and thank God, asking for His mercy. When we fall ill, it's not a matter of not taking medication or going to pray to St. Nektarios. We must know and understand that illness is a sacrament, and moreover, it is an opportunity for us to throw ourselves into the grace of God… This is the sacrament itself. Grace will teach us the rest, that is, how to do this, how to surrender ourselves to Christ. How to surrender? Just like that! We disdain illness, we don't think about it; but we think of Christ calmly, we think simply, imperceptibly, selflessly, and God will work His miracle for the benefit of our souls. As we say at the Divine Liturgy: Let us commit our whole life to Christ our God…”
   Based on the book "Venerable Porphyry – Prophet of Our Generation": "The great cure is to devote oneself to zealous service to Christ," the Elder said. "Everything is healed, everything begins to function normally. God's love changes everything, transforms everything, sanctifies, corrects, and makes everything different. Our soul will receive great consolation if it thirsts for Christ. Then we will not be preoccupied with mundane and base things, but will be preoccupied with spiritual and lofty things; we will live in the spiritual world.
   When you live in the spiritual world, you live in a different reality, a different world, which your soul delights in and longs for. But you are not insensitive or indifferent to someone mired in sin... On the contrary, you sympathize even more deeply, you desire that they too may find salvation, light, and holiness, that all may enter the Church!" It is important to note that the elder did not reject medicines, but did not attach much importance to them in treating the patient.
One day he asked me, "What is medicine?"
   I replied, "A chemical compound we take to get well." He wasn't satisfied with my answer: "Tell me, what is medicine? Does the word itself mean nothing to you?" I couldn't think of anything to say in response. Then Geronda continued, "Medicine, my child, means poison... Don't think that medicine is always only beneficial. It can also be harmful. Why do we take medicine? Because we're sick. And why are we sick? Because we're nervous. And why are we nervous? Because we sin. But if we allow Christ to dwell in our souls, then sin flees, nervousness flees, illness flees, and we throw away our medicine."
   This elder's view seemed unusually simple and helpful to me. Father Porphyry, like a spiritual drill, began with the surface and drilled down to the terrifying depths, consistently establishing the causes of the most serious issues: abandonment of medications, illnesses, disorders, sin, the absence of Christ in our souls.
   Elder Porphyry said: "When we surrender ourselves to Christ, our spiritual organism comes into a peaceful state, resulting in all our organs and glands beginning to function naturally. They all depend on our state of mind. Then we recover and cease to suffer..."


Prayer to Venerable Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

   O good and merciful shepherd, Venerable Father Porphyrios! We humbly fall down before you and fervently pray: reveal to us sinners your fatherly love and your powerful and wondrous intercession. Through your intercession, implore our All-Merciful God and His Most Pure Mother all that is for the benefit of our souls and bodies: forgiveness and correction of our sins, sincere love, zeal for our salvation, so that, preserved and saved by God's grace, we may offer glory, thanksgiving, and worship to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.


 
Saint Paisios the Athonite

   Venerable Paisios the Athonite (1924-1994), a world - renowned Greek saint of the 20th century, was born in Cappadocia and brought to Greece as an infant. (Cappadocia is the historical name of a region in eastern Asia Minor, in what is now Turkey.) In 1954, he became a monk on Mount Athos. He lived in the monasteries of Philotheou and Koutloumousiou. For his ascetic life and through the prayers of Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia, the Athonite Elders Kirill and Tikhon, he was granted the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: the gift of clairvoyance and healing through prayer.
   Believers from many countries came to Elder Paisios for spiritual advice and consolation. The ascetic died on July 12, 1994, in the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, located near the village of Souroti, near Thessaloniki. He was canonized on May 5, 2015.
   On July 25, 1924 (N.S.), in Cappadocia (Asia Minor), a son was born to Prodromos and Evlampia Eznepidis into an already large family. The child's baptizer, glorified now as Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia, named the infant Arsenios, saying, "I want to leave behind a monk."
At this time, Orthodox families in Cappadocia were experiencing persecution from Turkish Muslims, and many families were forced to flee their homeland. In September of 1924, the refugees arrived in Greece. The family of the future ascetic settled in Konitsa. Little Arsenios dreamed of becoming a monk from childhood; he would escape into the forest and pray fervently there. After finishing school, Arsenios found work as a carpenter. In 1945, he was drafted into the army, where he served most of his time as a radio operator. He often asked to be assigned to the most dangerous missions on the front lines, exhibiting extraordinary courage during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949).
   After completing his service in 1949, Arseny, choosing the monastic path, set off for Mount Athos. In 1950, he became a novice under Elder Kirill, later abbot of Koutloumousiou Monastery. Some time later, Father Kirill sent the novice to Esphigmenou Monastery, where Arseny received the rank of ryasophore  in 1954 and took the name Averky. He loved solitude, prayed unceasingly, and loved to read the lives of the saints,and often visited the gracious Elders.
   In 1954, Averky, on the advice of his spiritual father Kirill, transferred to the Philotheus monastery and became a disciple of Father Simeon there.
   In 1956, Father Simeon tonsured him into the minor schema with the name Paisios, in honor of Metropolitan Paisios II of Caesarea. While living in the monastery, Father Paisios maintained a spiritual connection with his spiritual father, often visiting Elder Kirill at the skete. It happened that Father Paisios would find the answer to a troubling question in a book, which the clairvoyant elder would immediately hand him: the necessary words had been underlined in pencil. The elder, with spiritual insight, foresaw the need of his spiritual child and knew in advance the time when he would arrive. Through the prayers of his spiritual father, Father Paisios grew spiritually.


The Life of an Ascetic on Mount Sinai. Return to Athos

   From 1958 to 1962, Father Paisios lived at the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Stomion, where, by God's Providence, he was called upon to spiritually assist thousands of people who came to the monastery with their needs and difficulties. Since 1962, Elder Paisios lived on Sinai in the cell of Saints Galaktion and Epistimia. In 1964, the Elder returned to Athos and settled at the Iveron Skete. (During the civil war, when his life was in danger, he prayed: "My Most Holy Mother! Help me become a monk! I promise that I will work for three years and restore Your burned-out Stomion Monastery..." After praying, he miraculously escaped encirclement. And years later, having become a monk, having received a message from Above, he set out to restore the monastery located near Konitsa.)
   In 1966, the Elder fell seriously ill, and part of his lung was removed. In the hospital, the Elder was cared for by sisters who intended to establish the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. After his recovery, the elder helped the sisters find a site for the construction of the Monastery and provided them with spiritual support for the rest of his life.
With the blessing of his spiritual father Tikhon, he took the great schema in his cell (he was then 42 years old). (Despite the fact that he loved solitude since childhood, he trusted in the Lord and, by command from Above, he began to receive pilgrims.)
   The Elder's love for people was boundless; he tried not to publicly rebuke anyone. For everyone, he always had a piece of sweet Turkish delight and a mug of cold water, good advice, and prayerful support. Throughout the day, he consoled the suffering and filled their souls with hope and love for God, and at night he prayed, allowing himself only three to four hours of rest. When his spiritual children asked him to take pity on himself and rest, he replied, "When I want to rest, I pray. I have learned that only prayer truly frees a person from fatigue. Therefore, pray and learn." He also said, "I always try not to dwell on my own pain. I think about the pain of others, and I make that pain my own." Thus, we must always put ourselves in the place of others... Goodness is good only if the one who does it sacrifices something of his own: sleep, rest, and the like. This is why Christ said, "... from his own deprivation..." (Luke 21:4). When I do good after rest, it costs little... Tired, and making sacrifices to help another, I experience heavenly joy... My own peace is born from the fact that I bring peace to another."
   The Elder read the Psalter in its entirety every day. At night, the elder prayed for the entire world. He offered special prayers for those in hospitals, for quarreling couples, for all who finish work late in the evening, and for all those traveling during the night.
   One evening, while the Elder was praying, it was revealed to him that a man named John was in danger, he lit a candle and began to pray for John. The next day, the very same young man he had prayed for came to the elder. John told him that at the very hour when the elder began praying for the salvation of his soul, he had, in despair, decided to commit suicide... Suddenly, the thought occurred to him: "They talk so much about this Paisios on the Holy Mountain; shouldn't I go see him too?" Having met the Elder, John found a loving spiritual father, through whose prayers he embarked on the true path.
   Through the prayers of Elder Paisios, many believers were healed. One day, the father of a deaf-mute girl approached the Elder for help. He related that several years earlier, before the child's birth, he had hindered his brother, who wanted to become a monk. Seeing the man's sincere repentance, Elder Paisios prayed for the girl's healing and promised, "Your daughter will not only speak, but she will also deafen you!" After some time, the girl began to speak.
   It often happened that people with difficulty walking, rheumatic diseases, and even those who were disabled, to everyone's surprise, left the Elder healed. He advised one desperate couple who wanted to adopt a child after years of unsuccessful treatment to have their own child, to wait, promising, "Now, with God's help, you will have a child!" Soon, through the elder's prayers, the long-awaited child was born.
   One day, the father of a girl with cancer came to the Elder and asked him to pray for his daughter's healing. The Elder replied, "I will pray, but you, as a father, must also offer some sacrifice to God, because a sacrifice of love greatly 'disposes' God to help... Quit smoking out of love for your daughter, and then God will heal her." Through the Elder's prayer, the girl recovered. However, after some time, the girl's father, forgetting his vow, began smoking again—and suddenly his daughter's illness returned. When the man returned to the Holy Mountain and asked him for help, the Elder said: "If you, as a father, are not pious enough to sacrifice your passion and save your child's life, then I can do nothing to help you."
  Elder Paisios said: "Because no one wants to control themselves, everyone wants to live uncontrollably, according to their own will. But this leads to complete disaster, because, yes, God has given man the freedom to do as he pleases, but He has also given him reason so that he can understand his limitations and the boundaries between right and wrong. When a person acts presumptuously, without taking into account his own weaknesses, then he makes mistakes." Families of those who, according to doctors, were not destined to survive after major operations and incurable illnesses often turned to the Elder for help. There are numerous testimonies of miraculous healings of terminally ill people through his prayers to the Lord However, the Elder's health deteriorated significantly year after year.
   Back in 1966, after a lung infection, as a result of taking strong antibiotics, the Elder developed pseudomembranous colitis with severe abdominal pain. Despite the pain, he stood for hours, receiving people seeking his blessing. The Elder believed that pain greatly helps the soul and humbles it, and the more ill a person is, “the more benefit he derives.”
In 1966, the Elder fell seriously ill, and part of his lung was amputated. In the hospital, the Elder was cared for by sisters who wanted to found the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. After his recovery, the Elder helped them obtain the blessing of Metropolitan Synisios of Kassadria to found a women's monastery and find a good site near the village of Suroti. After this, in March 1967, he returned to Athos. Even on Mount Athos, Father Paisios continued to prayerfully support the nuns, often instructing them in letters, and later, at their request and with the blessing of Elder Tikhon, he returned to their monastery in December. He spent two months helping to establish life in the new monastery, then returned to Athos again. By Divine Providence, due to his poor health, he was destined to spend the last days of his earthly life with the nuns near Suroti. (Now, all believers who wish may come to the great elder's resting place.)
   In 1967, Father Paisios went to Katounaki and settled in the Lavriot cell. From the memoirs of St. Paisios: "When I was living in Katounaki, one night during my evening prayer, a heavenly joy began to overcome me. At the same time, my cell, which was in darkness and only dimly illuminated by the flickering light of a candle, gradually began to fill with a beautiful bluish light. This mysterious light was extremely powerful, yet I felt that my eyes could withstand its brightness. It was the Uncreated Divine Light, which many elders of Athos had seen! For many hours I remained immersed in this wondrous light, unaware of earthly objects, and in a spiritual world completely distinct from this physical one. In this state, and receiving heavenly sensations through that Uncreated Light, I spent many hours without a sense of time; with it, sunlight seemed like a full moon! Nevertheless, my eyes were able to withstand the brightness of that light."
Since 1968, the Elder lived at the Stavronikita Monastery. Upon learning of his new location, many pilgrims flocked to this monastery.
   Since 1988, the Elder had developed an additional intestinal complication, accompanied by bleeding. By 1993, the Elder's condition had become very serious, but Elder Paisios continued to receive pilgrims. When his spiritual children implored him to seek medical attention, he replied that "such a condition is very helpful in the spiritual life, so it is not beneficial to expel it." The Elder courageously endured the suffering that befell him, never asking for anything for himself, praying only for the healing of others. At the insistence of his spiritual children, he nevertheless entered the hospital for treatment, where doctors diagnosed a cancerous tumor. In 1994, the Elder underwent two surgeries, but his health continued to deteriorate: on July 11, he received Holy Communion for the last time. On July 12, 1994, the Elder gave up his soul to the Lord and was buried in the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Souroti, Thessaloniki.  Elder Paisios of Mount Athos was officially canonized as a Saint on January 13, 2015.

Prayer to Saint Paisios

   O beloved Father Paisios, thou that didst ascend the rungs of holiness and become perfect in virtue, therefore gaining boldness before our Merciful God, do thou pray to Him, Whom thou didst serve unceasingly all thy life, not to let us perish for the multitude of our sins, but to turn us back to blessed repentance.
   Thou, who on earth didst heal with such love our countless weaknesses, diseases both of body and soul, canst all the more now deliver us from all sufferings. So do thou have mercy on us, O Father, through thy immeasurable love and godly kindness, not forsaking us that are full of sins.
Do thou, who didst never tire of guiding us to salvation and bearing our weaknesses whilst thou wast here with us, now grant us too the wisdom to overcome the temptations which the wicked devil doth ever weave around us and through which he would destroy our souls for eternity. Enlighten us to know the will of God for us and pray to the Master that He might give us power to fulfil it with thanksgiving.
   Do thou, who didst set an unwavering example of courage and self-sacrifice, strengthen us also to follow Thy virtue, that we may win an everlasting crown, of which thou thyself wast found most worthy. Thus, O Father, do not forsake us, who ceaselessly anger our long-suffering God, but rather stand with boldness before His throne, interceding for us with tears, that God may give us for thy sake most dear salvation. And thus, thanking thee with all our heart for all that thou hast done and still doest for us, let us also thank our Most Gracious God, Who is glorified in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen!


Sayings of Elder Paisios

   A person's primary duty is to love God, then their neighbor, and above all, their enemy. If we love God as we should, then we will keep all His other commandments...
   Just as hay and fire cannot dwell together, so divine and human truth cannot simultaneously reside in the same soul. He who trusts in divine truth in everything is not disturbed when he is offended, nor does he seek justification for the deed for which he has been condemned. Instead, he accepts false accusations against himself as true, and does not bother to convince others that he has been slandered, but will even ask forgiveness himself.
   He who lives simply thinks humbly of himself and feels the need for God's fatherly care, leaving all concerns to Him. In this case, the good God, seeing that this soul trusts Him in everything, and not itself, covers it with providence and mercy. Then the soul clearly sees God's help and rejoices.
Obedience and natural simplicity lead to holiness by a shortcut.
Before praying, read a few lines from the Gospel or the Patericon. This will warm your thoughts and transport you to a spiritual land.
   We must pray for others with contrition and with spiritual pain. And the soul can achieve this when, in humility, it considers itself guilty of what happens to its neighbors...
A person should constantly pray: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Prayer should be simple... We say the prayer, and our souls are warmed.
   To pray from the heart, we must feel the pain... The more a person suffers, the more comfort they receive from God...   A person finds the greatest joy through sacrifice...
   The traitors that weaken prayer are spiritual dryness and coldness. These can be countered by short prayers, especially the Jesus Prayer, and diligent reading of Holy Scripture and spiritual books. Thoughts of death, judgment, heaven, hell, and God's blessings also protect us from sin and help us... From this will come the fear of God, self-discernment, the rejection of bad thoughts and feelings, and the maintenance of moral purity. Let us always examine ourselves: do we repent of past sins and fear our weaknesses? But let us not lose hope of salvation.
   Prayer is the oxygen of the soul, its urgent need, and it should not be considered a burdensome duty. For prayer to be heard by God, it must come from the heart, be offered with humility and a deep sense of our sinfulness. If prayer is not from the heart, it is of no use.

“Work an hour and pray for an hour. No monk should devote too much of his time to work. He should dedicate at least as much time to prayer as he does to work. When a monk works longer than he prays, he stops being a monk. Especially when a monk becomes a hermit, prayer must become his primary occupation. An eagle may grow up with chickens, but at some point, he must leave the henhouse, or become like a chicken who does not know how to fly.”  (A spiritual father of St. Paisios - Elder Tikhon of the Holy Mountain)


Elder Tikhon's sayings:

"Good habits are virtues, and bad habits are passions."
"The prayer 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' is pure wheat."
"A good novice will be able to acquire the Jesus Prayer."
"Better three bows with humility than thousands with arrogance.
Only humility will save us! Truly humble-minded people are very few.
They must be sought after with fire! "

 
Elder Tikhon (Golenkov)
 
   Hieromonk Tikhon (1884-1968) was born into a pious family Pavel Golenkov, in 1884 in the Russian village of Novaya Mikhailovka, then located in what is now the Volgograd Region.
   As a child, he was baptized with the name Timofey. Since childhood, he loved visiting monasteries. Once he learned to read and write, his love of psalmody and church music soon made him a remarkable singer. He always attended church and sang in the choir, eventually becoming a choirmaster. Knowing about the son’s desire for monastic life, but wanting him to first mature spiritually and be ready for such a serious decision, they advised him to first visit holy places.
With his parents' blessing, he decided to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Mountain. The God-loving young man set out on the journey with other pilgrims. (He visited approximately 200 Russian monasteries, visited Sinai and Palestine, and in 1908, at the age of 24, came to Mount Athos.)
   At seventeen, he went on a pilgrimage to visit Russia’s different monasteries. His journey lasted three years. He saw a vision of the Mother of God. One night, as he was travelling from one monastery suffering from extreme hunger, he walked into a baker’s shop to ask for a piece of white  bread, but the baker turned him away. He prayed to the Mother of God: “O Most Holy Theotokos, help me! Will you let me die of hunger and never become a monk?” No sooner had he said these words than the Blessed Virgin appeared to him in a vision in Her heavenly beauty with a loaf of warm white bread. (It was not until after many years that he recognised in the image of the Mother of God of Vladimir the One who gave him the bread.)
   In 1908, Timothy was accepted into the Russian brotherhood of Belozerka Skete. The main occupation of the brothers was icon painting. Timothy mastered the art of iconography to temptation. After five years at the skete, he left it in search of higher monastic exploits.
   After his pilgrimage of many years across Russia, he went on to asceticize for several months in some of the harshest and most remote areas of Mount Sinai. Then he tried his resolve in the Jordan Desert, observing a strict fast, enduring extreme heat and tempering his soul with many hours of prayer… Finally, he directed himself to Mount Athos.
   One of the biographers of Elder Tikhon is also Hieromonk Agathangelos Kalafatis, a former monk of the Iveron Monastery, who later became a famous elder from the cell of the Holy Cross of the Simonopetra Monastery. Father Agathangel recalls Elder Tikhon's kindness and love for people, his fervent prayer in memory of thousands of the living and departed, his constant tears that brought joy, and his wondrous asceticism. His weapons were the cross and the rosary, but most of all, he loved the Divine Liturgy, Holy Scripture, and the Holy Fathers.
   Let us cite excerpts from the biography of Elder Tikhon, written by elder Agathangel: “After making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he returned to the Holy Mountain and joined the Burazeri brethren on Mount Athos. A year later, he was tonsured a monk. A love of silence and a thirst for asceticism compelled Father Tikhon to leave the kindly brethren of the skete and settle in the harshest place on the Holy Mountain—the dangerous Karoulia. (One of the harshest places on Mount Athos.The cave was in a remote location.) He lived there for approximately fifteen years. His ascetic struggle was rigorous and relentless. He performed over six hundred prostrations a night. He ate once every three days, and often once a week. He made over six hundred prostrations a night. He ate once every three days, and often once a week.  Every Saturday, he went to receive Holy Communion at St. George's Skete and then immediately returned to his cave. His cave was located at the base of St. George's Skete and has survived to this day. At that time, there lived in the skete of St. George an elder wise in both life and God, whom he called his teacher. This elder, his teacher, gave him a patristic book every month…”
   Once, while talking about another ascetic, he modestly remarked to father Agathangel about himself: “And I, my child, when I sleep, my heart says a prayer... When you say a prayer,” he told me, “your heart should stick to the prayer from above,” and he depicted this with his finger on the wall, “like glue sticks together.”
   The Elder and his disciple lived in absolute poverty. The Elder never took money into his hands, considering it a violation of the vows of monasticism. “Money is the blood of the poor”, he would say. Father Tikhon painted icons and exchanged them for bread and sewing supplies.
He ate very little; a spoonful of soup could last him for a day. Two planks of wood served him as a bed. He had a stool and ate from old cans.
   From the memoirs of Elder Paisios: “Every Christmas, the Elder bought himself a herring so that he could spend all the joyful days of Christmastide with permission to eat fish. However, he didn't throw away the skeleton; he hung it on a string. When the Lord's or the Theotokos' feast day arrived and fish was allowed, he boiled a little water in an empty tin can. He dipped the herring skeleton in water two or three times until the water smelled slightly, and then threw in some rice. This was his way of observing the fish ban and condemning himself for even eating fish soup in the desert! He then hung the skeleton on a nail again until the next holiday, boiled it until it turned white, and only then threw it away.”
   He wore a patchy under cassock and a dismally worn Skufia. A tattered cloak was his mattress.
He paid little attention to mosquito and flea bites. Wild animals became his neighbours. He shared his paltry food with the animals and let the insects suck his blood.
   Fifteen years later, Father Tikhon moved to one of the cells of Stavronikita Monastery in Kapsala and began living there. Here he lived in obedience to a certain elder, whom he cared for. Yielding to his admonitions, Monk Tikhon became a priest and spiritual father.
But hieromonk Tikhon did not have any money to build a small church. Putting all his trust in God, he went to the capital of Mount Athos, Kareia.
   From the memoirs of elder Paisios: "He prayed and went to Karyes, believing that God would send him the money he needed to build the church. Father Tikhon had not yet reached Karyes when the abbot of the Russian Skete of the Prophet Elijah (now part of the Pantocrator Monastery) noticed him from afar and called him over. When he came closer, he said to him: "A kind Christian from America sent me some dollars to give to someone who doesn't have one to build a church. You don't have a church, so take this money for yourself."
   The Elder Tikhon wept with emotion and gratitude to God, and he also thanked … and said, "May the Lord have mercy on him," that is, the man of God who had sent him this blessing. The good Lord, as the Seer of Hearts, had provided for His temple even before the elder asked Him for it, so that when he asked for money, it would already be ready…"
The elder hired two monk builders. They worked with incessant prayer and completed the church quickly. It was the only church on Mount Athos dedicated to the Holy Life-Giving Cross of our Lord.
   Once during a night prayer, the Elder had a vision: the sky opened up, and the Risen Lord appeared in the opening, surrounded by the light of Mount Tabor. This episode shook him from within. He sang Paschal hymns until dawn. He understood the meaning of this incident in the morning. The elder was serving liturgy, in empty church: he did not want anyone else to be present. His disciple, Paisios of the Holy Mountain, was singing behind a wall and could not see what was happening in the church. Yet, as elder Tikhon was praying, heaven was coming apart and the great heavenly host descended. Joy and tears overwhelmed him, leaving him speechless. Sometimes, his disciple had to sing the Cherubim's hymn many times over before the elder could proceed with the liturgy.
   The Elder’s cherished dream was to celebrate liturgy for eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. Towards the end of his life, he was confident of its reality, as God Himself had revealed it to him. “My beloved disciple, soon I will serve the liturgy in Heaven,” Elder Tikhon said to spiritual son Paisius shortly before his departure to God. His spiritual son was the only person to whom he could say with full confidence: “Here stood the Cherubim, and there the Seraphim, over there the Guardian Angel.”
   When he lived alone, Elder Geronty served Liturgy for him. He recounted how, during Liturgy, he once saw Elder Tikhon lifted into the air. "I have never seen a greater saint on the entire Holy Mountain," Elder Geronty said.
   Several testimonies have survived regarding the gift of foresight bestowed upon the elder. He warned one of his visitors of impending danger, and baptized him at length as he departed. Through the elder's prayer, he remained alive, although his life was in danger that night.
   Theodore Taleas was one of Father Tikhon's spiritual children. He recounted that once, when he went to the elder for confession, a previous visitor told him how Father Tikhon had predicted that Theodore would come after him and bring this and that, which in fact happened.
   The Elder greatly loved repentance; he shed copious tears and was filled with great tenderness. And when Father Tikhon confessed someone, he would be moved to tenderness, weeping, and compassionate toward the confessor.
   We present another excerpt from the memoirs of Father Agathangel: “During the Divine Liturgy, the elder entered into an elevated spiritual state, so that, beginning the service in the morning, he didn't notice how evening had arrived. With great reverence, he read the prayers of the Divine Liturgy, which he had memorized. He read them not silently, not out loud, but so that they could be heard. During the Cherubic Hymn and the Eucharistic Canon, he sang the hymn in heaven with the Angels, then saw with spiritual vision what was happening on the Holy Table, and concluded the Liturgy…When he grew old and could no longer serve, I would come to him, celebrate the Liturgy, and leave the Holy Gifts, which he cut into pieces and received daily. He demanded that those who baked prosphora do so with prayer and reverence, for the prosphora became the Body of Christ. He showed me how to prick the prosphora dough in five places to prevent any air pockets. The wine should be equally good. With great simplicity, he told me that angels, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, monks, unmercenaries, and all the saints are present when we commemorate them at the proskomedia, and also come to the aid of all for whom particles are removed.
   Father Tikhon's spiritual advice was a drop of his heartfelt experience. To find a good spiritual father," he told me, "you need to pray for three days, and then, as God enlightens you, you need to pray. And along the way, as you walk to your spiritual father, you need to pray that the Lord will enlighten him and give you good guidance."
   "Always pray before beginning any work. Say, 'My God, give me strength and enlightenment,' and then begin your work; and at the end, say, 'Glory to God.'" Elder Tikhon of Athos reposed on September 10/23, 1968, in the cell of the Holy Cross. In the aforementioned cell, Father Tikhon hosted monks from all over the Holy Mountain during the last years of his life, including the future Elder Paisios the Athonite. Dying, Elder Tikhon bequeathed his cell to Father Paisios, promising him "to come and see him."  “
   Before departing to the Lord, he was granted a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos along with Saints Sergius of Radonezh and Seraphim of Sarov. He received word that after the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, they would take him to their home. At Father Tikhon's side was his novice, Elder Paisios.
   One day, Father Tikhon told his monks not to open his grave after his death. One of them thought, "I'll dig him out of the ground and say, 'Bless me!'" Father Tikhon read his thought and said, "There's no blessing for that!"
   We present another excerpt from the book "About Elder Tikhon the Russian, from the Life of St. Paisios the Athonite“, published by the Sisters of Suroti monastery :  "For the first ten days of September, 1968 Father Paisios … cared for Father Tikhon, who had been ill since mid-August, staying in bed and eating nothing at all—only a little water. Elder Tikhon didn't want anyone near him: He feared that an outside helper would interfere with his unceasing prayer. However, realizing that his last day was approaching, the elder agreed to have Father Paisios by his side at all times.
On the eve of his death, on September 9, Elder Tikhon said to Father Paisios: "Tomorrow I will die. I ask you not to sleep tonight, so that I may bless you." After this, the elder placed his blessed hands on Father Paisios's head and, despite his waning strength, held them there for three hours. He blessed Father Paisios and kissed him tearfully.
   "My sweet Paisios!" he repeated. "You and I will have this precious love forever and ever. I will now serve the Liturgy in Paradise. And you pray from here. I will come and visit you every year. If you continue to live in this cell, I will be very happy. But let it be, my son, as the Lord Himself wills." On September 10, Father Tikhon died. The next day, he was buried in a grave he had dug long ago in the courtyard of his cell. Before his death, Father Tikhon asked that his remains be left undisturbed and that they be kept in the grave until the Second Coming."
   Three years after Elder Tikhon's death, on September 10, 1971 Father Paisios, while praying the Jesus Prayer, suddenly saw the elder entering his cell. (It was the day of remembrance of the ascetic.) From the memoirs of Saint Paisios: "I fell at his feet, embraced them, and began to kiss them reverently. However, in some way that was incomprehensible to me, he freed himself from my arms. I only saw him enter the church and disappear." (Commemoration Day of Elder Tikhon: September 10/23)
Lord, give rest to the soul of Elder Tikhon and by his holy prayers have mercy on us sinners.

Elder Kirill († 1968)

   The book by St. Paisios the Hagiorite, "The Athonite Fathers and Athonite Stories," contains information about the life of Elder Kirill. Here are a few excerpts from this book:
"Father Kirill's birthplace was Agrinio. While still a child, he found himself in a foreign land, in Egypt. From there, he set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and settled there in the Monastery of St. Sava. At the age of sixteen, he received the ryasophore at this monastery, but due to the multitude of pilgrims, he found no peace here and therefore went to Mount Athos, the lot of the Mother of God... He began his ascetic labors as an adult ascetic of Christ.
   In the Koutloumousiou Skete of St. Panteleimon, he found peace of mind near Father Panteleimon's spiritual father, who lived in the kalyva of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. His elder, in addition to other divine gifts, also possessed the gift of clairvoyance, for through his supernatural ascetic labors he became a man of God. He foretold to some people that they would become monks, and even told them their future monastic names... Therefore, it was not surprising that the young and pious Father Kirill received an abundance of God's grace from the holy elder Panteleimon, just as Elisha once received from the prophet Elijah, becoming his successor.
   After the death of his Elder, Father Kirill began to strive even more intensely... Eventually, he contracted tuberculosis. He told me: "I coughed up blood clots with great difficulty and asked Saint Panteleimon to make me well without the aid of medicine."
   Could Saint Panteleimon, being the skete's patron saint, have left him to suffer? As soon as Father Kirill, by the saint's grace, regained his health, he immediately resumed his zealous labors. I was fortunate to live with him for some time and received great benefit from it. I certainly would have stayed with him forever, but unfortunately, I was not allowed to do so. Then he told me where I should go, and later, when I was already living at the monastery of Saint Philotheus, he gave me various pieces of advice. When I came to him at the skete for advice, I received an answer before I even had a chance to ask the question that was troubling me. God revealed to him that I was supposed to come, as well as the question that was troubling me, and he was already waiting for me with the answer. Often, he said nothing to me, but pointed to a previously marked passage in a book, which served as my answer. After this, I bowed before him and left, having received great benefit.
   In addition to the gift of clairvoyance received from God, he also had the gift of casting out demons from God's creatures... The elder had boldness before God because he possessed humility and great reverence, combined with love. When he read the Gospel, he could not restrain his sobs and tears. Therefore, covering his face with the Gospel, he would go to the altar and discreetly wipe it... He performed services with a prayer rope and also engaged in unceasing prayer of the heart.
   Toward the end of his life, unfortunately, he was forced, against his will, to become abbot of Koutloumousiou Monastery, to which he was subordinate, as there was a pressing need. His preoccupation with administrative matters exhausted him and led to the loss of his former spiritual state. Since, as I have already said, he became abbot against his will and subsequently suffered greatly, I believe the Lord will crown him with a double crown: in addition to that of a monk, he will also crown him with that of a martyr, for at the end of his life he also endured martyrdom. A misanthrope envied him and arranged for a wild animal to inflict severe injuries on him. He took to his bed, enduring the pain with joy and praising God. The animal, however, after striking him, immediately fell to the ground, dead. The fathers were astonished. From what had happened, they realized that the elder was a saint.
   Thus, enduring suffering and praising God, in 1968 Father Kirill completed his "good fight" (1 Tim. 6:12) and reposed in the Lord. May his prayers be with us. Amen.
Having set for himself the primary goal of "purifying the soul and completely submitting the mind to Divine grace," he strove to achieve it by all means necessary. He believed that all problems must be confronted with "patience, good intentions, and humility, so that God's grace may assist." Having acquired the wisdom of the Holy Fathers, he demonstrated throughout his humble life that "the desires of the soul are abolished when its goal is union with the goodness of God."
Lord, give rest to the soul of the Elder with the saints, and by his prayers save us!


Venerable Aristokliy of Athos (1838-1918)
 

   Venerable Aristokliy ((in the world Alexey Alekseevich Amvrosiev) was born in the Urals to a pious peasant family, presumably in 1838, and was baptized with the name Alexei. Alexei lost his father in early childhood. At the age of ten, a serious illness left him paralyzed in his legs. Alexei's mother, Matrona, long and tearfully prayed to St. Nicholas to intercede before the Lord for her son's healing. In those days, she vowed to enter a monastery as soon as her son reached monastic age and never see him again in this life. On the Church's feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6/19, Alexei was miraculously healed. When her son turned seventeen, Matrona retired to a monastery, and Alexei, with his mother's blessing, departed for Mount Athos. Upon his tonsure as a novice, Alexei was given the name Aristocles, in honor of the holy martyr of Cyprus, Priest Venerable Aristokliy of Salamis.

   Hieromonk Aristokliy labored for over a quarter of a century at the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, and in the mid-1880s he was sent to Moscow to the metochion of the Athonite St. Panteleimon Monastery, located on Bolshaya Polyanka. For ten years, he headed the metochion and served as rector of the chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon. People were drawn to the good shepherd, whose prayers brought miraculous healings of the sick. The elder admonished, instructed, and prayed for his children, wholeheartedly desiring their salvation. Rumors of the clairvoyant elder quickly spread throughout the capital.
   Hundreds of people in need of the elder's prayerful assistance visited the Athonite monastery's metochion daily. The elder gave numerous donations from believers to those in need, funding the education of children from poor families and improving the lives of many. Thanks to the elder's efforts, the journal "Soul-Beneficial Interlocutor" began to be published at the Athonite metochion in 1888. It chronicled the life of Russian monks on the holy island, introducing readers to the biographies of Athonite ascetics, the letters of elders to their spiritual children, and the wise thoughts of the holy fathers. Thanks to his educational work, the Russian monasteries on Athos began to receive new prayer books for the Russian land. Generous donations from Russians helped restore ancient monastic buildings damaged by fires, and new churches were erected in honor of saints venerated in Rus'. However, in 1894, after a false denunciation, the elder was forced to leave Moscow and return to his native monastery.
   Only through the reports of "The Soul-Beneficial Interlocutor" could the Elder's spiritual children learn about the life of their spiritual father. The magazine reported that Father Aristokliy had been elected treasurer and confessor of the monastery, and in 1909, Hieroschemamonk Aristokliy (who had by then taken the schema) was first on the list of candidates for the monastery's successor.
For fifteen years, the Elder's spiritual children sent letters to the Synod and Mount Athos, begging for their beloved pastor to be restored. Finally, the Council of Spiritual Fathers of St. Panteleimon Monastery reappointed Elder Aristokliy as abbot of the Athonite metochion of St. Panteleimon Monastery in Moscow.
   At the age of seventy, the Elder Aristokliy was destined to return to Russia. By then, he was suffering from numerous illnesses and needed a devoted assistant.
   After the elder's departure for Mount Athos in 1894, the parish dwindled, and the treasury was emptied, leaving no money to repair the buildings.
   Upon the elder's return, thousands of people began to come to the chapel again. Father Aristokliy built a house church in honor of his especially revered and beloved icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hear."
   According to contemporaries, the Elder's prayers healed sick people, and the Lord revealed the future to him. People came to him for spiritual advice. Many reported that predictions they considered incredible at the time actually came true.   
   From the memoirs of Mother Varvara (Tsvetkova, later Abbess Varvara of the Gethsemane Monastery in Jerusalem): “Through the prayers of the Athonite elder of God, Venerable Aristokliy, many miracles occurred in the Panteleimon Chapel on Nikolskaya Street, healings of the sick and the unfortunate who were possessed. Father received endless visitors at Bolshaya Polyanka in the Athonite metochion, thirsting for his spiritual advice and guidance. Father always consoled us, prayed, and told us what would happen. Once, when both my brother and father were in prison on Lubyanka... And I was feeling unbearably hard, Father suddenly said cheerfully: “And you will leave for other countries, and openly.”
   I was simply dumbfounded: “But there is no way!”
…He spoke of this in 1918, shortly before his death, and everything happened according to his word in 1922: my brother was unexpectedly and inexplicably released from prison.
   A few days later, after being ordered to leave the country, my father was released without any apparent reason, and we were sent to Germany. It was truly a miracle for us. Our dear father was no longer with us. I often remembered with pain how, 10 days before his death, I visited him, and he blessed me with a particularly warm blessing: "Farewell, my child, farewell..." I remember once, in a conversation about Russia's fate after the revolution, I told him that I was placing my hopes on the White Army, which was then being formed. "No, don't place your hopes on it," said Father, "because the spirit is not the same." I asked him about the war, which was not yet over, and he replied: "And there will be another... And you will learn about it in the country where you will be then... That German weapons are clanking on the border of Russia." From the memoirs of Nun Euphemia: My mother's arm had been hurting terribly for several years. We tried all sorts of medicines and consulted all sorts of doctors, but the pain wouldn't subside. I said one day: "Let's go see the Elder; he'll help."
   We went in the morning. The Elder wasn't quite well and was in his cell. He received us with such love! He kept smiling... He blessed us and began to talk. He took her hand and began to rub it...Then he left my mother's hand, gave us some prosphora, anointed it with oil, and so, joyfully, he let go of her hand. From then on, there was no pain. I think my elder rejoiced, knowing that through his prayers the Lord had healed my mother. And how Father comforted me with his conversations! He would sometimes say, "Oh, my beloved child, if you only knew how I long to save you! I would endure anything for you, may the Lord save you! If only I could bring you to Him! If only you were saved, I have no greater concern than to bring you to the Lord, and there is no more serious task on earth than the salvation of the soul..."
   Father always rejoiced when he saw the zeal of us, our spiritual children, for each other and for others. He was incredibly grateful for the slightest concern from others. He had an amazing love for children. And he was always surrounded by children, so devoted to him that they never wanted to leave their Father...
   Sometimes the Elder would walk from his cell through the yard, and the people would be waiting for him. He would bless them all, then they would hand him a small box of pigeon food, and the priest would pour it for them with a prayer and bless them. And so it was every morning, and the pigeons would perch everywhere, waiting for him…
First, he received everyone with their children, and then went to a large room, filled with icons, like a chapel, for a general blessing. Father was exhausted by the crowds; there were days when he received thousands…
   Elder Isaiah witnessed the resurrection of a dead girl through the prayers of Elder Venerable Aristokliy. He himself recounted this to Elder Daniel of the Donskoy Monastery after Elder Aristocles' death. One day, a woman came to Elder, carrying a dead girl in her arms. She explained that they had come from Ryazan, having heard of the elder's miracles. She was bringing him her sick daughter in the hope that Father would heal her. But the girl died on the way. And now the mother begged the Elder to revive her child. She had no doubt in the power of the elder's prayerful intercession before the Lord and with faith awaited a miracle from Father Venerable Aristokliy. And a miracle happened: through the prayers of Elder, the girl was revived and healed of her illness. The mother held her revived daughter close, unable to find words of gratitude, but merely repeated, "May God grant you health, Father, may God grant you health!"
   On August 24/September 6, 1918, the Ålder reposed in the Lord. He was buried by three Moscow bishops. Originally, Elder Aristokliy was buried in a marble crypt at the monastery's tomb. However, after the Revolution, all monastery property was subject to nationalization, and the house churches were subject to liquidation. Therefore, in 1922, the Elder's spiritual children decided to rebury him. The burial was quiet, so as not to attract the attention of the authorities. The monks carried out the coffin containing Hieroschemamonk Aristokliy's incorrupt body. He was taken from the tomb, loaded onto a cart, and taken to the Danilovskoye Cemetery. Eyewitnesses reported that pigeons, which the elder loved to feed in life, flocked from all directions and, circling, formed a living cross in the sky. This living cross of pigeons accompanied the elder all the way to the grave.
   It should be noted that shortly before Hieroschemamonk Aristokliy's death, one of his spiritual daughters, A.P. Solntseva, who lived on Dukhovskiy Lane, near the Danilovskoye Cemetery, invited the elder to visit. The elder responded affectionately: "My beloved child, soon, soon I will come to you. I will come forever." Father Aristokliy died soon afterward, without ever having visited her. The woman was perplexed. Four years after the elder's death (in 1922), a woman, accidentally encountering a funeral procession near her home, learned that they were burying Elder Aristokliy and remembered her spiritual Father's prophecy.
   On September 6, 2004, Elder Aristokliy was glorified in the rank of locally venerated saints of Moscow and the Moscow Diocese. On November 13, 2004, the holy relics of Saint Aristokliy were transferred in a procession from the Danilov Monastery to the Athonite dependency. His relics rest in the church of Saint Great Martyr Nikita at the Athonite dependency in Moscow.
(Feastday: August 24/September 6. May 20 - Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos/ September 6 (movable) - Synaxis of Moscow Saints)

Kontakion of St. Aristocles of Moscow, Tone 8
Like a star in the firmament of heaven, you shone forth, and having traversed the arduous path of monastic life, you acquired an incorruptible crown through your virtuous deeds. Therefore, Christ our God enriched you with the gift of miracles. Remember us who honor your holy memory, O Venerable Father Aristocles, praise of Mount Athos and adornment of the Russian land.

Afterword

   This collection contains only excerpts from the lives of a few saints and ascetics. Other ascetics  also lived on the Holy Mountain in the twentieth century, through whose prayers the Lord performed miracles. Here are a few examples:
Athonite Elder Athanasios (Protoeropoulos) (1873-1954)

In 1908, the future ascetic was ordained a hieromonk at the Gregorian Monastery, and in 1914, Father Athanasios was offered the position of abbot. During a locust plague, residents of the village of Vultir, located in the coastal region of Pieria east of Veria, turned to Abbot Athanasios for help. Through Hieromonk Athanasios' prayers and the prayers of the saints, whose relics he took with him, a miracle occurred. The ascetic prayed and sprinkled holy water over everything—and suddenly, a swarm of locusts, abandoning their crops, rose into the air and headed toward the sea. Soon, everyone saw the color of the coastal water change—the insects had been swallowed by the sea.

Athonite Elder Isaac of Dionysiou (1850-1932)

In his youth, the Athonite Elder Isaac carried out many obediences: he was a food keeper, a shepherd, a gardener, and a prosphora baker. One day, when the flour was running low, he was warned to use his last sack of flour carefully and not to give any of it to the hermits. Father Isaac approached the icon of St. John the Baptist and, in the simplicity of his soul, began to pray to the saint as an elder brother: "Holy Forerunner, I will continue to bestow blessings upon the hermits. In your holiness, perform a miracle, grant that the flour will last until the next harvest!"
And the miracle occurred – the flour in the sack never diminished, and the prosphora and bread were baked until June 22nd, the day a ship from the monastery in Kalamaria arrived, loaded with wheat.
     Since ancient times, a legend has lived on Mount Athos, passed down orally by monks, about seven (according to other sources, twelve) desert fathers hiding in the impenetrable thickets at the summit of Athos, living without food, drink, or clothing, and spending all their time in prayer for the world. Legend has it that these ancient elders, invisible to man, will remain in prayer until the end of time, until the appearance of Christ and the Last Judgment. According to Athonite tradition, it is they who will celebrate the final Divine Liturgy before the end of the world. Their number, according to tradition, never changes: when one desert father departs to the other world, God brings another in his place.
   Monk Blasius the Athonite compiled a book, "The Invisible Hermits of Athos." The book includes contemporary accounts of remarkable encounters with the "invisible hermits." They live in inaccessible places on Mount Athos, even in winter wearing old, barely-covering clothing. Sometimes, as the book reveals, they descend into the Athonite monasteries themselves for nighttime prayer; occasionally, they impart information to one of the monastic brethren that is important for the spiritual development of the monks.
   We would be delighted if, after reading this book, you are inspired to learn more about the lives of the righteous and to read the spiritual legacies of the wise elders in order to follow their advice.