The Miracle of the Panagia in Orchomenos on September 10, 1943

On 8 September 1943, the day of the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Italians capitulated and in the beginning refused to surrender their weapons to their German allies. In Orchomenos of Boetia the regional organization E.A.M. felt they could capitalize on this and accept the Italian arms. The Italians refused this and went with their weapons to Livadia. On the way the Germans surrounded them and disarmed them, and the Italians betrayed the people of Orchomenos by stating their intentions. When the Germans learned of the intentions of the people of Orchomenos they sent against them the next day, September 9th, armored vehicles. When the people of Orchomenos heard this they left and arrived at the crossroads of Agios Andreas, unprepared and disorganized as they were, and scattered throughout the surrounding area to the most remote Dionysus (Tsamaliou). The Germans continued the chase, to retaliate against Orchomenos, as was their usual tactic.


When the Germans entered Orchomenos they took 600 hostages, left a section in the village, and sent three tanks against the rest to Dionysus. On the night of the 9th towards the 10th of September, at around midnight, about 550 meters away from the Byzantine Church of the Panagia Skripou (874 AD), the three German tanks were immobilized for no apparent reason. As the German commander known as Hoffman later recounted, the form of a woman had appeared in the night sky with her hand raised in a prohibitive stance. Commander Hoffman then requested a tractor to pull the tanks, and he beheld another miracle when the tractor was able to easily pull the heavy tanks like an empty matchbox. He then proclaimed "miracle! miracle!" and asked the residents to take him into the church. From the icon in the church the commander recognized the woman to be the Virgin Mary. He fell down on his knees and said: "This woman saved you! You must honor her and glorify her!"


Orchomenos was indeed saved by the Panagia and the 600 hostages were freed with a vow by the commander that the village would not be harmed. Following the war, Commander Hoffman returned to the Church of Panagia Skripou, donating an icon of the vision he saw along with an large oil lamp. Just about every year he returned on September 10th to commemorate the event and light a candle in the church. For this reason the Panagia Skripou celebrates a feast on September 10th every year. A procession takes place with the icon on this day to the spot where the tanks were immobilized.

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How Were the Hierarchical Vestments of St. Chrysostomos of Smyrna Saved?

The Greek Historical and Ethnological Museum, the result of private initiative, is in the Old Parliament Building of Athens on Old Stadiou Street, and is devoted to the history of Greece in the 18th - 20th centuries. The collection also contains historical items concerning the period from the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 to the Second World War, focusing especially in the period of the Greek Revolution (1821) and the subsequent establishment of the modern Greek state. Among the items displayed are weapons, personal belongings and memorabilia from historical personalities, historical paintings by Greek and foreign artists, manuscripts, as well as a large collection of traditional costumes from the various regions of Greece. The collection is displayed in the corridors and rooms of the building, while the great central hall of the National Assembly is used for conferences. Among the treasured relics of the Greek Revolution are the relics of Lord Byron's helmet and sword.


One of the sections of the museum is dedicated to the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922. Among the treasuries here are the episcopal mitre, the episcopal engolpion, and the cross of Hieromartyr Chrysostomos of Smyrna, who died violently to help his beloved flock. The enthusiasm of the visitor when he sees these relics makes them also question how such treasures came into the possession of the museum, since we know the body of Metropolitan Chrysostomos was burned together with the city. This question was solved by St. Chrysostomos' nephew, Metropolitan Chrysostomos Tsiter of Austria (+ 1995), the son of St. Chrysostomos' sister Erifylis Yrakleos Tsiter. He did this in his three-volume work titled "The Archive of the Ethnomartyr of Smyrna, Chrysostomos".


Metropolitan Chrysostomos Tsiter writes that during the tragic days of the catastrophe of Smyrna in August and September of 1922, near St. Chrysostomos was Thomas Voultsos of Drama, his trusted personal servant Nicholas Sophocleous, the husband of his sister Sophia, and his brother Evgenios. Of these, Thomas Voultsos and Nicholas Sophocleous survived the catastrophe and went to Greece. His brother Evgenios stayed in the Metropolis, was arrested, and sentenced to death and buried. When Thomas Voultsos was in Athens he contacted Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Ephesus to learn the fate of his spiritual father St. Chrysostomos. The Metropolitan informed Thomas that two boxes of hierarchical belongings of St. Chrysostomos were put aboard the battleship Lemnos for safekeeping. The Metropolitan of Ephesus wrote a letter to the commander of the battleship Lemnos to give these boxes to Nicholas Sophocleous. He found in the boxes hierarchical vestments and hand-written letters of St. Chrysostomos. These were distributed to various family members of St. Chrysostomos.

The family of St. Chrysostomos held him in high esteem with great respect and were convinced by the then Deacon Chrysostomos Tsiter (later Metropolitan of Austria), nephew of St. Chrysostomos, to deposit the relics of St. Chrysostomos in the Ethnological Museum in Athens for all to remember the sacrifice of the Etnomartyr. The hierarchical vestments were given to the Ethnological Museum on 30 April 1927 by his family.

Read also:

Πως διεσώθησαν τα άμφια του εθνομάρτυρος αγ. Χρυσοστόμου Σμύρνης

Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna: An Ecclesiastical and National Martyr

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The Discovery of the Holy Icon of the Theotokos in Trikeri in 1825

Does A Tiny Greek Island Really House A Miracle-Working Icon of the Virgin Mary? Seeing is Believing

In these troubled times it pays to have a little faith.

Brian Patten
February 23, 2002
The Independent

The tiny island of Old Trikeri, in Greece's Pagasitic Gulf, is as quiet an island as can be found this side of deserted. There are no cars, no police, no schools, no doctors, no bakeries. Numerous tracks shaded by trees criss-cross the island, but there are few roads. Tucked away into a curve of the Pelion peninsula, a short sea-crossing from the mainland, it's been mouse-quiet for centuries.

Approaching the island, the first signs of civilisation you might notice are three or four plastic chairs perched on the headland, put there because it's a nice, breezy place to sit after the heat of the day. Coming into the port you dock beside a rusty old tub, tipped up on its side and used as a diving platform by local children. There's a jumble of fishing boats in front of the first of the island's two tavernas and a strip of scruffy beach where vegetables are sold twice a week. The village's only shop, further along the harbour-front, is little more than a large cupboard.

In winter the island is often wet and grey, and the population dwindles to between 30 and 60 inhabitants, mostly fishermen and people staying on to tend the animals while the grey-green olive trees rattle in the wind. But once a year, as many as 2,000 souls arrive on Old Trikeri in search of miracles. For it is here that the miracle-working icon of Our Venerable Lady Virgin Mary was unearthed, on 10 September 1825.

The early inhabitants of the island first migrated to the mainland sometime in the 11th century, fearful of pirates who were plundering the area, and the island remained deserted until the 19th century when a monk named Damianos Koslis set up home in a cell down by the old port. Nothing much had changed in the intervening centuries. The olive trees were pretty much the same trees, and though paths had been lost and the church of the Virgin Mary had fallen into ruin, pirates still menaced the area. It was fear of them that made Damianos Koslis build a shack as a hiding place beside the tumbledown church. And here, one dark night, the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream.


The Virgin ordered Damianos to dig in the ruins where, beneath a wild olive, he would find her lost icon. She appeared to Damianos three times before anyone took the monk seriously, and when, with help from the mainland, he finally dug up her icon, it glowed and let off an endless fragrance. A great celebration was held, and over the next three years a new church dedicated to the Virgin was built beside the ruins of the old.

The Monastery of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary stands today in all its splendour, a mere 10-minute walk from the village. In normal times it has few visitors and seems almost too grand a building for so small an island. I was only staying on Old Trikeri for three days and did not hear about its icon until I was due to leave. I was curious to learn more about it, and it was suggested I talk to the local priest.

The monastery was up a steep rubble-strewn path rutted by the previous winter's rains. A long, thin building, on the day of my visit it was besieged by 10 or more local women frantically tugging up weeds from between stones; others were watering flowers and polishing candlesticks, crosses, steps, cups, and anything else that could be polished. The monastery was undergoing a spring-clean in preparation for the pilgrims due to arrive that weekend.

The priest was an anxious little man dressed in grubby robes. He was supervising the women, and although he'd agreed to spare a few minutes, it was obvious he wouldn't have time to answer more than a couple of questions. What I wanted to know most of all was what miracles had actually been performed. Either he found the question impertinent or his English was not as good as I'd been led to believe, but whatever, a cleaning crisis materialised and he disappeared.

The icon itself was inside the monastery, the frame supporting it and with which it would be carried in procession, leaning against an alabaster pillar painted to resemble marble. Both the face of the Infant Jesus and the Virgin were too dark to make out, either blackened by fingers, time, or more likely a century of smoky incense wafting about the church. Surrounding the icon, and now encased with it behind glass, were heirlooms – gold and silver rings and a late-Victorian gold watch, the offerings of earlier believers.


I still do not know what miracles were performed, not even after rooting around on the internet to find an answer. Perhaps the icon simply being dug up and found was miracle enough. Certainly if that had not happened, if the Virgin Mary had not come to Damianos Koslis in a dream, the monastery itself would never have been resurrected from the ruins.

I did not go to Old Trikeri in search of miracles, but by the time I left I'd begun to wonder if some could be so subtle that you would hardly recognise them when they happened. Perhaps in these troubled times it is miracle enough to find such a simple and beautiful place as the Holy Monastery of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, with its cloistered courtyard that on most days is an oasis of silence, surrounded by olive trees on top of a hill that looks down through a haze of heat to a warm and glittering blue sea.

Brian Patten's book, 'The Story Giant', is published by HarperCollins (£12.99)

Travellers' Guide

Getting there: Tricky. The quickest and easiest option if you're travelling from the UK is to buy a package from a specialist tour operator. Brian Patten travelled with Tapestry (020-8235 7788, www.tapestryholidays.com), which charters flights between London and Manchester to the small airport at Volos, the gateway port to the Pelion peninsula. Transfers to Trikeri island by road and boat take about 2 hours 30 minutes.

Travelling independently and taking a scheduled flight from the UK, you'd first need a cheap return to Athens (eg on easyJet, 0870 6000 000, www.easyJet.com, from Luton). From the Greek capital, the next step is a four-hour bus ride to Volos.

From Volos, you can hire a car to explore the peninsula and count on negotiating a fishing-boat ride to the island.

The closest point is Alagoporos, some 10 minutes away by sea but in the middle of nowhere. A crossing from the mainland resort of Afissos takes about 50 minutes.

Accommodation: Brian Patten stayed at the Galatia Hotel (00 30 423 55 233), where simple but pleasant apartments cost €40-€60 (£24-£37) per night according to season.

A week's holiday with Tapestry costs £500 per person until 13 July, including flights, transfers and accommodation, rising to £600 in high season.

For independent travellers, there are sometimes rooms available at the Diavlos Taverna, by the harbour – but it's all a bit hit-and-miss.

More information: Greek National Tourist Office, 4 Conduit St, London W1R ODJ (020-7734 5997; www.gnto.gr)

Read also: Χιλιάδες επισκέπτες στο Τρίκερι

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Something No Orthodox Christian Kitchen Should Be Without

It is said that there are two things most Greek cooks do not go anywhere without: a knife and an icon of St. Euphrosynos. For Orthodox Christians, St. Euphrosynos the Cook is the patron saint of cooks and chefs. This being the case, it is traditional for Orthodox Christians to have in their kitchens an icon of St. Euphrosynos. Those unaware of St. Euphrosynos typically follow the western practice of hanging a Leonardo DaVinci inspired "Last Supper" icon. For Orthodox, however, the depiction of the "Last Supper" is more appropriately called the "Mystical Supper", since it was primarily a liturgical event which is often reserved for depiction in the Holy Altar area of a church.

The life of St. Euphrosynos, who is commemorated every year on September 11th, can be read here, and at the bottom of this link is a prayer to St. Euphrosynos traditionally said before cooking.


Chef's Hats and Orthodox Monastics

It is worth noting, since St. Euphrosynos was an Orthodox monastic on Mount Athos, that tall white chef hats (toque blanche), according to many, have their origins in the black tall hats (kalimavkion) of Greek Orthodox monastics. It is said that in the middle ages, Greek monks who prepared food in the monasteries wore tall white hats so that they could be distinguished from the normal monks who wore tall black hats.

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The Wondrous and Varied Ways of Athonite Life

Elder Nikodimos (+1867)

Father Nikodimos was born in 1807. He found no satisfaction living in the world with all its vanities, and when he was thirty-two he went to Mount Athos. After spending a short time at New Skete, he followed the advice of his spiritual father and moved to Kavsokalyvia, where he settled in a small cell and began to lead a strict life of prayer. He did not undertake any handiwork until he began to accept disciples, when it became necessary to have some means of support. Then, too, came various responsibilities attendant upon skete life, that bitterly constrain those who are engaged in mental prayer. He ate only bread, not even vegetables.

The envier of our salvation could not tolerate his rapid spiritual progress, and laid out for him various snares: there appeared to him dreadful apparitions, terrifying specters, and radiant visions. But, guided by an experienced elder, he vanquished the enemy and all his hordes.

Once the snow was piled so high around his cell that he was unable to leave it. His supply of rusks gave out and for a long time he was without food, so that he became weak with hunger. At this time a demon appeared to him in dazzling brightness, sitting on a throne, as if in the guise of the Holy Trinity, and said to him: “I am the holy trinity, bow down before me. You will be filled with grace and you will eat!” At that moment the famished elder saw before him tables laden with various dishes, whose aroma tantalized the hungry man’s sense of smell. He fell to the ground and prayed that the Lord preserve him from the derision of the enemy. He prayed for a long time, and the Lord regarded the elder’s humility and banished the demon. Only then did the elder arise when the aroma of the foods had disappeared.

Toward the end of his life, Elder Nikodimos was afflicted by five large open sores, and for three months he was racked by pain. At first he could, although with difficulty, crawl out of his cell, but later he had to lie immobile, and his disciples strained to turn him periodically from one side to the other. His disciple Nilus served the elder day and night, becoming so exhausted as to resemble a dry stick. The elder was unable even to sleep, but in spite of all he maintained a benign humor and continually thanked God, saying nothing about the excruciating pain. During this time one of the skete dwellers came and began to commend the elder for such an illness, which he desired to have himself for the sake of the cleansing of his sins and for future reward. The elder replied, “You do not know what you are saying. If you knew what kind of illness this is and what you have to endure, you would never say such a thing!”

Not long before he died, the elder had a revelation concerning the reward prepared for him and the coming of angels to take his soul. He took the hand of his disciple, Nilus, and, brimming with spiritual joy, said to him firmly, “My son, keep to the path that I have shown you and you will receive that which is now mine!” The elder was in such a state of ineffable joy that he was unable to continue speaking, and his soul flew to the Lord.

But at that very moment his disciple exclaimed sorrowfully: “Father, are you really dying?” and with these words he delayed the elder’s soul just long enough for him to answer: “Yes, I am dying!” and he closed his eyes. This was in 1867.

In instructing his disciple Nilus in the prayer of the heart, the elder told him to engage in it as continuously as possible, and not to believe in any dreams. “Even if Christ Himself should appear to you, do not believe the vision and say: ‘I do not want to see Christ in this life but rather in the life to come!’”

Remembering his elder, Nilus said sorrowfully, “There are no comparable elders left. Not long ago, after his death, I was preparing to receive the Holy Mysteries, and I was saying the preparatory rule with my eyes closed when suddenly the thought came to me: I have been struggling for so many years and I never see anything! At the next instant there appeared before my eyes an image of the icon Not-Made-by-Hands. I opened my eyes and I saw the same thing: before me there was an icon of the Saviour, surrounded by a great light. Thanks to the elder’s teachings, I understood that the vision was from the devil. I closed my eyes and continued to pray, and the vision disappeared!”

Elder Leonty (+1876)

Father Leonty was born in Ukraine. He was a year old when his mother died, and his father gave him into the care of a wealthy, childless Moldavian. At the age of twenty-two Leonty ran away from his guardian and hid away in a monastery some fifteen miles from Bucharest. After sixteen years he made his way to Mount Athos together with his friend the monk Anthony, whom he later tonsured to the great schema, thereby becoming his elder. They settled in the Moldavian skete of Lak, where Father Leonty remained until his death, thirty-five years later.

Concerning his monastic life, Elder Leonty related:

"When I first entered upon the monastic path, my elder instructed me: in addition to the first confession before tonsure concerning what I had done while living in the world, I was to reveal my thoughts daily and to practice absolute obedience. I was to regard all the brethren as angels and to serve them in obedience as God Himself. Thus the elder further instructed me how to guard the senses and the mind from harmful thoughts."

Soon he was ordained to the deaconate. His cell rule was as follows: 300 prostrations with the Jesus Prayer daily, and, in place of bows from the waist, to read the Gospels. He continued the prostrations even unto old age, even though these were superfluous for one who had attained unceasing prayer. The elder, however, while he still found strength, continued his physical acts of ascesis as well.

“One person,” he would say, “can make a thousand prostrations without feeling physically tired, while others can scarcely breathe after fifty, but these latter are equal to those who make many!”

“And here we are,” said his interlocutor, “we drink a lot, we eat a lot, we sleep a lot, and our powers are only moderate.”

“If you do not give your nature what it requires, you will become still weaker. Saint Paisios, who spoke with the Lord Himself, once saw a brother lying on the ground, weak with exhaustion after fasting only two days, and he was surprised, for he had fasted sixty days without growing weak. The Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not think thus: you were able to do so thanks to my Grace, but he spent his own strength and fasted with extreme effort.’ ‘And what reward will he receive?’ asked Paisios. ‘The same as you!’ said the Lord.

“Here at the skete we have those who fast two and three days, even a week at a time - they have the help of grace.

“If you desire, says Saint Anthony the Great, to test a man of repute, whether he is spiritual, revile him, humiliate him; if he endures it, he is indeed a spiritual man, but if not, he has nothing. When someone humiliates you and your love for him does not falter, you are on God’s path!”

When the elder had to leave his cell in order to take care of necessities - to the skete, or to the monastery, or elsewhere - he would make several prostrations before an icon of the Mother of God, asking that whatever should befall him, that he would endure it all without experiencing any inner disturbance. Once he came to Karyes, to a Bulgarian acquaintance, who welcomed him with love and invited him to stay in the guest quarters until he had finished his business. The elder entered with a prayer and, as was his custom, said with a bow, “Bless!” There was a monk lying there, and he suddenly threw himself at Father Leonty and began upbraiding him. The perplexed elder said only, “Yes, father, just so. You’re right!” The monk looked around for a stick, but there was nothing of the kind in the room, so he dashed outside.

Awaiting his return, the elder sighed to the Mother of God and said to himself, “Well, Leonty, show how well you have been preparing yourself.” His faith in the Mother of God did not desert him; he hoped that she would strengthen him enough that his patience would not run out before his offender had tired of beating him. The elder expected that the monk would attack him, but when he returned he threw himself at Father Leonty’s feet and began asking his forgiveness. Some Wallachian, who resembled the elder, had offended the monk, and the latter had mistakenly taken the elder for his offender. However, when he ran down in search of a stick he ran into the guest-master, who asked after Father Leonty. Only then did the monk realize his mistake. The meek elder, seeing the monk’s humility and contrition, said, “God forgives; only fulfill the short canon: make a hundred prostrations to the Mother of God.” The monk had just begun to make the prostrations when the elder, seeing the sincerity of his repentance, said, “All right, that’s enough.”

There were many such incidences. “Had I not prepared myself earlier,” said the elder, “for all kinds of humiliations and beatings, what would have happened? I would have retaliated, he would have done likewise, and we would have come to blows. One must always be prepared for everything.” Father Leonty was well read, wise, and kindly. He remedied all those who came to him for confession, and comforted them in such a way that they went away with joy.

Even before coming to Mount Athos, Father Leonid had heard about the renowned Athonite ascetic, Elder Hilarion, the Georgian, and the first thing he did when he arrived was to go, with a translator, to see him. The elder gave Father Leonid a rule for mental prayer and explained how he should conduct himself in following this path. Until this time Father Leonid had not practiced mental prayer, although he had desired it, but he did not dare to undertake it without an experienced teacher. Afterwards he always turned to Elder Hilarion for counsel, and Elder Hilarion sometimes came to him. Father Leonty became adept practitioner of mental prayer, and later trained the Moldavian, Father Antipas, in the art. (Father Antipas later moved to Russia and reposed in the monastery of Valaam.) In a noisy monastery, where there are many monks, all with different characters, it is difficult to maintain inner vigilance, but if one practices absolute obedience and frequent revelation of thoughts, this too can bring salvation.

"Whatever one is doing, wherever one goes - one should always have the Jesus Prayer. Our Saviour Himself, during his 33 years on earth, showed obedience to Joseph and to His Mother. No one saw Him laughing, but several times He was seen to weep, thereby indicating how we should go on the path to salvation. A cleansed conscience itself shows the superiority of the inner life over the external."

In the battle against the passions, the elder advised: “If you should be troubled by envy towards your brother, for example, then go search out in the writings of the holy fathers a text concerning envy and read it. Likewise with other passions: you should look up and read suitable passages. In this way a person becomes accustomed to defend himself and to withstand the passions. A person who possesses obedience and humility progresses imperceptibly in the spiritual life. If it happens that a young monk speaks about the fear of God, or about some other aspect of the path of salvation, one should listen and apply it according to one’s strength.

But if someone teaches what is contrary or doesn’t agree with the Holy Fathers, even if he should have a white beard or even if he should be an elder, as I am, do not listen to him!"

The elder advised to have a constant remembrance of death with tears. This is the way of repentance; there is no other.

Father Leonty had a strong constitution, and a firm trust in God and His Providence. He used to bring a full sack of rusks or other essential supplies from Roussico [St Panteleimon’s Monastery] or some other distant place, carrying it on his back, and would distribute most of it, and whatever was better, to the poor, the sick, and the elderly. For himself he kept only rusks and whatever else could be eaten without cooking. His disciple, Father Athanassy, rarely left the skete; Father Leonty himself took care of obtaining whatever was necessary for their sustenance. The disciple, like a little child, sat at home and ate what was already prepared, whatever the elder set before him.

Father Leonty peacefully departed to the Lord on 25 May, 1876, mourned by all his spiritual children and by all who had profited from his spiritual counsels and comfort.

The Novice James the Bulgarian and the Mysterious Elder

A certain youth, James, a Bulgarian, without asking for the counsel of any experienced spiritual father, attached himself to an elder, a Greek, who lived in the skete of Kavsokalyvia, in a cell below the main church. This particular elder was fond of the broad path of life. At the same time he was severe, obstinate, and altogether unskilled in the spiritual life, as one who did not seek it. James, however, aspired to the life of an ascetic; he wanted to pray and to fast, but the elder would not allow it.

James asked a spiritual father what he should do under such circumstances. The spiritual father said that he should be obedient even to such an elder, and he revealed to him what benefit he would receive if at the same time he guarded his mind and heeded the voice of his conscience. The disciple obeyed, but not without extreme inner constraint. He told his spiritual father about this and asked his blessing to go to another elder, but the spiritual father did not give his blessing and instructed him to obey him in all things. At the same time, he gave him a rule for prayer and fasting which he was to fulfill secretly, in a way that the elder would not notice. James obeyed. At night he prayed, during the day he labored, while practicing self-restraint and vigilance. It was difficult to keep this from the elder, who began to keep an eye on him, compelling him to eat and sleep more.

James made a habit of going every night to the main church, where he would pray before an icon of the Holy Trinity, located above the entrance. He had been doing this for a long time when, one night, as he was praying and sorrowing over the elder’s oppressive demands, he heard footsteps. Concealing himself, he observed an elder noiselessly enter the porch; he had a grey beard and long hair, and he was completely naked. On entering he stood before the doors to the church and, saying a prayer, made the sign of the cross over the doors, which proceeded to open of their own accord. The elder entered the church and, standing in the center, prayed for a long time, uttering the prayers aloud. When he had finished praying, the elder venerated the icons and came out. Again making the sign of the cross over the doors, which closed in the same way they had opened, he left the church.

James wanted to know just who this elder was and to ask him to accept him as a disciple. He left the church and began following the elder at a distance. From Kavsokalyvia they walked up the mountain until Kerasia, where the elder turned aside in the direction of the summit. When dawn cast its first rays they were already nearing the church of Panagia, and James finally decided to catch up with the elder. But just then the elder, who had been walking as though unaware of being followed, turned to James and said, “Where are you going?” James drew nearer and began asking if the elder would accept him. The elder replied, “You cannot live here. Go back to your elder and perform your obedience; this will serve for your salvation. He who has not received Divine Grace cannot live in this place. Your salvation lies with your elder. But know this; that shortly the Lord will call for you.” Continuing his way, the elder added, “There are two of us here.” And he began descending down from the “Panagia.” James related all this to his spiritual father. The latter confirmed what he had been told and instructed James how to prepare for his departure to the next world. Three weeks later James reposed.

After three years his remains were exhumed. They emitted a wondrous fragrance, and his head was full of myrrh. Many who did not know of his life were amazed, as was his elder.

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Video: Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol In the Family Home of Elder Paisios

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Video: The Home of Sts. Joachim and Anna in Jerusalem

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The Athonite Island of Kyra Panagia

Kyra Panagia (Greek: Κυρά Παναγιά; trans. Lady All-Holy) is a Greek island in the Sporades. It is administratively part of the municipality of Alonnisos in the Magnesia Prefecture. The island is also known by the name of Pelagos and rarely Pelagonisi. In Antiquity it was known as Ephthyros (Έφθυρος) and Polyaigos (Πολύαιγος). A bay in the south west of the island is named Agios Petros. Kyra Panagia has belonged to the Athonite monastery of Megisti Lavra (Great Lavra) since it was granted the island by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas in 963. There is a monastery, currently (2011) under restoration and inhabited by a single monk, on the east coast of the island. With an area of 25 square kilometres Kyra Panagia is the largest of the desert islands.

The story begins in 963 AD, when Saint Athanasios the Athonite bought the island from the Byzantine noblemen of Constantinople as a dependency of Mount Athos, which it supplied with food such as meat, honey, oil, and wheat. It is well-known that women may not enter Mount Athos, but many will not be aware that neither are female animals allowed, so Athos's requirements of meat are met by its dependencies. This is how goat-farming started on Kyra Panagia, and the system whereby the island is rented from the Great Lavra Monastery by goat-farmers to graze their flocks continues to the present day.

The island's monastery, built in 1100 AD, is situated on the southeastern side. Up until 1984 there was still a monk there. The monastery overlooks the sea from its height and resembles a small fortress, reminiscent of the times when pirates laid waste to the area. Its natural harbor is exposed to the elements and caïques can only approach in favourable conditions.

The monastery buildings, simple but impressive, were restored in 1992 with funds given by the Potamianos family, and is again ready to receive monks who might wish to go there. It is interesting to see the still-existing old oil-press and flour mill. From up here on clear days there is an excellent view of the island of Yioura opposite it, with the rocky islets Pappous and Grammiza in front of it, and further off the little island of Piperi. In good weather one can see the flat bulk of Psathoura jutting out of the sea in the distance.

There are many olive trees on the island, which in former times provided the monastic community with oil and olives. Nowadays no one looks after them and the harvest is meagre. Similarly, cultivation of the island's fertile plains has been abandoned. There are many springs on the island, so that in former times farm animals could be kept. The island's surface is covered chiefly with scrub-oak and other dry, low vegetation.

Traces of early settlement

Kyra Panagia has two large natural bays: Agios Petros in the West and Planitis in the East. When North winds blow caïques can shelter in the protected bay of Agios Petros. Here too the Byzantine sailors moored their ships, and one of them sank in the depths of the bay; the wreck has still not been investigated by archaeologists.

In ancient times Kyra Panagia was the centre of these desert islands, which were not then as deserted as today. Remains of neolithic dwellings have been found on the island, so Kyra Panagia is reckoned among the earliest of the Aegean islands to have been settled. (About 6,000 B.C.) Ancient ruins have been found opposite the islet of Melissa in Agios Petros bay. It is possible that an entire ancient city was established here, as witnessed by the ruined walls discovered on the coast of the bay. Certainly the finds have a story to tell to archaeologists who will study them. The island was inhabited continually up until the classical era, but became well-known during the dispute between Philippos and the Athenians. From the 5th century B.C. it belonged to Athens. In 351 B.C. Sostratos, a brigand from Peparithos (the present-day Skopelos) took over the island and made it his stronghold. Then a little before 346 B.C. Philippos took it over and chased Sostratos out. The Athenians however, to whom the island belonged, complained, and Philippos agreed to hand it back to them. In spite of this the Athenians remained unsatisfied and Igisippos made his speech ‘Concerning Alonnisos', of which only fragments survive. This speech was mistakenly attributed to Demosthenes, whose own work of the same title is lost.

In the southern part of the bay the plain of Agios Petros stretches down from the mountain, full of olive trees, and at its end there are remains of an old monastery.

The bay of Planitis in the East is one of the largest natural harbors in the Mediterranean. Its entrance is about 80 metres wide and then it divides into western and southern areas, each several hundred yards wide. Arriving in Planitis by caïque one wonders why, with such an ideal natural harbour, no settlement has developed. The fact that the island belongs to Mount Athos appears to be the reason there has been no settlement in recent history. This is fortunate for the natural environment, which has remained undamaged except for over-grazing, and for the present-day visitor who can enjoy the genuinely natural countryside of an Aegean island.

The katholikon of the Monastery of Kyra Panagia, celebrates its feast day on the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos on September 8th. In this courtyard early Christian relics of the 6th and 7th century AD were discovered and there is a pergola to offer shade to the visitors. The Monastery of Kyra Panagia has become very popular with tourists and it is fascinating to see the still-existing remains of the old olive oil press and flour-mill. The main festival at Kyra Panagia Monastery takes place on 15th of August every year.

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The Nativity of the Theotokos - St. Nikolai Velimirovich

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

The Holy Virgin Mary was born of aged parents, Joachim and Anna. Her father was of the lineage of David, and her mother of the lineage of Aaron. Thus, she was of royal birth by her father, and of priestly birth by her mother. In this, she foreshadowed Him Who would be born of her as King and High Priest. Her parents were quite old and had no children. Because of this they were ashamed before men and humble before God. In their humility they prayed to God with tears, to bring them joy in their old age by giving them a child, as He had once given joy to the aged Abraham and his wife Sarah by giving them Isaac. The Almighty and All-seeing God rewarded them with a joy that surpassed all their expectations and all their most beautiful dreams. For He gave them not just a daughter, but the Mother of God. He illumined them not only with temporal joy, but with eternal joy as well. God gave them just one daughter, and she would later give them just one grandson-but what a daughter and what a Grandson! Mary, Full of grace, Blessed among women, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Altar of the Living God, the Table of the Heavenly Bread, the Ark of God's Holiness, the Tree of the Sweetest Fruit, the Glory of the race of man, the Praise of womanhood, the Fount of virginity and purity-this was the daughter given by God to Joachim and Anna. She was born in Nazareth, and at the age of three, was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem. In her young womanhood she returned again to Nazareth, and shortly thereafter heard the Annunciation of the Holy Archangel Gabriel concerning the birth of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, from her most-pure virgin body.

West of Struga in Macedonia, the Holy Mother of God manifested her power and mercy through numerous miracles. Many of the sick were miraculously healed, and thieves who thought to plunder or desecrate the monastery were severely punished by an invisible power. There is a miracle-working icon of the Holy Theotokos in the church there; nearby, there are two springs of healing water: that of St. Peter and that of St. Ananias. The Chapel of St. Athanasius is located in a cave not far from the main church.

Reflection

St. Dionysius the Areopagite writes of the immeasurable joy, the outer and inner radiance, and the indescribable fragrance that he sensed in the presence of the Holy Theotokos when he visited her in Jerusalem. In his zeal, he says that if he had not known the One True God, he would have recognized her, the Holy Virgin Mary, as God. The Holy Virgin made such a powerful and unique impression on men during her earthly life-and she received an incomparably greater power and glory after her physical death when, by the will of God, she was exalted above the heavenly hosts. Her power comes from her ceaseless prayer for the faithful, for all those who turn to her for help. When St. John of Novgorod and his people prayed to her for help against a hostile army, he understood that she was simultaneously praying to the Lord with tears in their behalf, and Novgorod was miraculously saved. As she was compassionate toward her crucified Son, so the Holy Most-pure One is also compassionate toward all those in need, to, where, after the priest prayed over him before the icon of the Holy Theotokos, he received his sight. The first monk at Pochaev saw a fiery pillar extending from earth to heaven, and in that flaming pillar he saw the Holy Theotokos. She was standing on a rock. On the spot where she stood, a spring of healing water sprang forth: even today, it heals many of the sick.

HYMN OF PRAISE: The Nativity of the Most-holy Mother of God

O greatly desired and long awaited one,
O Virgin, thou hast been obtained from the Lord with tears!
A bodily temple of the Most-holy Spirit shalt thou become,
And shalt be called Mother of the Eternal Word.

The Burning Bush they called thee,
For thou wilt receive within thyself the divine fire:
Ablaze with fire but not consumed,
Thou shalt bear the Golden Fruit and offer it to the world.

Thou shalt be the Bearer of Him Who bears the heavens,
To Whom all of heaven offers up praise!
The Miracle of miracles shall come to pass within thee,
For thou shalt bear heaven, thou who art "more spacious than the heavens!''

Thou art more precious to us, O Virgin, than precious stones,
For thou art the source of salvation for mankind.
For this, may the entire universe glorify thee,
O Most-holy Virgin, O white Turtledove!

The King of Heaven shall desire to enter the world,
And shall pass through thee, O Beautiful Gate!
O Virgin, when thou dost become woman thou shalt bear Christ for us;
From thy body, the Sun shall blaze forth.

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Ernest Hemingway On the Catastrophy of Smyrna in 1922

By Richard Carriero

Disorienting flashes of light and dark, that's how Earnest Hemingway's "On the Quai at Smyrna" begins.

"The strange thing was, he said, how they screamed every night at midnight. I do not know why they screamed at that time. We were in the harbor and they were all on the pier and at midnight they started screaming. We used to turn the searchlight on them to quiet them. That always did the trick. We'd run the search light up and down over them two or three times and they stopped it."

On August 30th, 1922 after smashing the Greeks at Afyon, Mustafa Kemal ordered his troops to Smyrna. Before him the survivors of the disastrous Greek invasion poured onto ships in terror. Not everyone escaped. The invasion's chaotic conclusion would bring Hemingway to Istanbul and provide the subject matter for his first work as a war correspondent.

No one knows who burned the city (Ataturk gave orders that on pain of death no civilians were to be harmed). Hemmed in by fire and the Turkish army, Christians huddled on the pier. Old men died alongside women giving birth. In Our Time, Hemingway's first story collection, begins with these images, gleaned from refugees a scant three weeks later by the young American journalist for the Toronto Star.

Toward the end of September, Hemingway, a new arrival on the Paris literary scene, boarded a train to write about a war. As he crawled through the Balkans on the Orient Express, bound for, as he put it, "Constantinople and Scutari (Üsküdar), where a short bronze-faced, blond Turk with a seasoned army of 300,000 men and a united nation at his back dictates terms to the Allies," the situation had reached a critical mass.


Like a prize fighter who has floored his opponent and glares about for the next challenger, Turkish forces marched into the neutral zone decreed by the Treaty of Sevres. They were ordered by British General Harrington to desist. Mustafa Kemal refused-the British were in no position to give orders. The Italians and French armies fled and the Greek navy was ordered by the British to quit Istanbul. In a city where people remembered only too well what happened in Izmir everyone was on knife's edge as Ataturk met with the allies to discuss peace terms. It was into this pressurized environment that Hemingway arrived.

"Constantinople doesn't look like the movies. It does not look like the pictures, or the paintings, or anything. First your train comes winding like a snake down the sun-baked, tree-less, rolling plain to the sea. It rocks along the shore where kids are bathing and out across the blue water you see a big brown island and faintly beyond it bulks the brown coast of Asia."

From his arrival at Sirkeci to his procession across Galata Bridge, up the hill to the Buyuk Londres Hotel in Pera, Hemingway describes a brownish city of narrow streets, bad traffic and hillsides strewn with rubbish. Although a first time visitor, Hemingway adeptly conveyed Istanbul to his readers in a few compact brush strokes. "You get flashes of squatting, mushroom-like mosques always with their dirty white minarets rising from the corners. Everything white in Constantinople is dirty white."

Its hard not to marvel that he was only 23. He hadn't a single novel to his credit and had only published a handful of stories. However his experiences in World War I had already given his work its characteristic detachment. Most importantly, Hemingway had developed a knack for thrusting himself into the action.

"There is a tight-drawn, electric tension in Constantinople such as only people who live in a city that has never been invaded can imagine. Take the tension that comes when the pitcher steps into the box before the packed stands at the first game of the world series, multiply it by the tension that comes when the barrier snaps up, the gong clangs and they're off at the King's Plate at the Woodbine (Toronto racetrack), add to it the tension in your mind when walk the floor downstairs as you wait frightened and cold from someone you love while a doctor and a nurse are doing something in a room above you that you cannot help in any way..." Probably more hyperbolic than his masterworks, at the same time, however, Hemingway was writing as a journalist and thus, we get to see a different side-one concerned with deadlines and sensationalism.


Not that hyperbole was really necessary that autumn. Hemingway entered a city that did not know whether it would witness a second Izmir should the allies abandon the straits. The "upstairs operation" is an allusion to the Mudanya conference where Ataturk sat down with the allies to decide Istanbul's future. In an interview with Ataturk's representative in the city, Hamid Bey, Hemingway discusses the prospect of sectarian strife.

"Canada is anxious about the possibility of a massacre of Christians when Kemal enters Constantinople," I said.

"What have the Christians to fear?" he asked. "They are armed and the Turks have been disarmed. There will be no massacre. It is the Greek Christians who are massacring the Turks now in Thrace. That's why we must occupy Thrace to protect our people."

The settlement of eastern Thrace and the freedom of the straits were at issue in Mudanya but the press weren't invited. While awaiting the outcome of the conference, Hemingway had plenty of time to take in Istanbul. The Buyuk Londres Hotel in Pera, where he stayed, was one of the grand pensions built during the 1890's in anticipation of the Orient Express. Today it epitomizes 19th century European opulence; in the grotto-like bar one can imagine Hemingway going over proofs whilst smoking cigarettes and sipping martinis. From the Londres front steps looking out over the Golden Horn, you can imagine how he saw the city each day.

"In the morning when you wake and see a mist over the Golden Horn with the minarets rising out of it slim and clean toward the sun and the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer in a voice that soars and dips like an aria from a Russian Opera, you have the magic of the East. When you look from the window into the mirror and discover your face is covered with a mass of minute red speckles from the latest insect that discovered you last night, you have the East."

All of Hemingway's dispatches display the same ambivalence toward the city. In describing Turkish cuisine the author comments how "the fish are good" and yet in the same paragraph how his jaw muscles were beginning to "bulge like a bull dog" from eating tough Turkish beef.

Hemingway's October 28th, 1922 article, "Old Constan," makes many observations that any modern Istanbullu can relate to. About the weather he quips, "If it doesn't rain in Constan the dust is so thick that a dog trotting along the road that parallels the Pera Hillside kicks up a puff like a bullet striking every times his paws hit the ground...If it rains, this is all mud."

His descriptions of Beyoglu are priceless, "All night hot sausage, fried potato and roast chestnut stands run their charcoal braziers on the sidewalk to cater to the long lines of cabmen who stay up all night to solicit fares from the revelers."


His take on late night Beyoglu is eerily familiar, "Before the sun rises in the morning you can walk through the black, smooth-worn streets of Constan and rats will scuttle out of your way, a few stray dogs nose at the garbage in the gutters, and a bar of light comes through the rack in a shutter letting our a streak of light and the sound of drunken laughing. That drunken laughing is the contrast to the muezzin's beautiful, minor, soaring, swaying call to prayer and the black slippery, smelly, offal-strewn streets of Constantinople in the early morning are the reality of the Magic of the East."

Hemingway was in Istanbul long enough to conduct a few interviews, complain about a particularly officious Near East censor and describe his Greek landlord, who had armed himself to the teeth to defend his hotel in the event of rioting. The Mudanya conference, of course, would turn out to be a diplomatic triumph for Ataturk, who was gracious in victory. The Greeks were given time to peacefully withdraw beyond the Maritza River (the present-day border of Turkey) while the Turks waited patiently to take possession of their territory.

Hemingway moved on to Edirne to take in the Greek departure from Eastern Thrace. Once again witness to one of the many seismic movements that would mark a turbulent century (a movement reenacted by the Turks in Greece who were forcibly relocated to Anatolia), Hemingway pulled no punches.

"The main column crossing the Martiza River at Adrianople (Edirne) is twenty miles long. Twenty miles of carts drawn by cows, bullocks and muddy-flanked water buffalo, with exhausted, staggering men, women and children, blankets over their heads, walking blindly along in the rain beside their worldly goods."

Though Hemingway was in Turkey less than a month, his time here served as an important education in war correspondence. Throughout his career, Hemingway would recreate images of conflict in sharp declarative sentences. His World War I career led to Farewell to Arms; his time in the Spanish Civil War yielded For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was in Turkey, however, that Hemingway really cut his teeth. As for the man himself; he returned to his wife in Paris with a face criss-crossed by insect bites and a head so lousy from sleeping in a Thracian boarding house that he had to shave off his hair.

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Documentary: Orthodox Churches of Greece (Russian)

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On the Monastic and Married Way of Life

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

We divide people into monks and married people, and life into monastic and married, with the result that we praise the monastic life, which we regard as better and more suited to keeping God's commandments, while we disparage married life as not suitable for the practice of God's will.

Indeed we know very well that the Church praises both ways of life, both the monastic life and the married life. But this does not mean that one is praised at the expense of the other. And at this point we must say that the interpretation of the Parable of the Talents applies, which we mentioned before.

It can be maintained that in the Church the people are not divided simply into unmarried and married, but into people who live in Christ and people who do not live in Christ. Thus on the one hand we have people who have the Holy Spirit and on the other hand people who do not have the Holy Spirit. Moreover, in the early Church, as it seems in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, all the Christians, unmarried and married, lived like monks, because even marriage has its asceticism. Therefore, if some monk criticises marriage in Christ, he shows that he has a problem with the monastic life, and if a married person criticises and looks askance at the monastic life, it means that he has a problem with the way in which he is living his life. A good monk never criticises what God praises and a good married person never criticises anything that God praises, such as the monastic life. It is characteristic that the best homily about Virginity is said to have been composed by St. Gregory of Nyssa, who was married: and a man who was unmarried, St. Amphilochios of Ikonium, wrote excellent things about the married life. Moreover let us not forget that St. Paphnoutios defended marriage for the Clergy in the First Ecumenical Council.

In his homily St. Amphilochios of Ikonium shows that the Christian is a catholic man, in other words, whole. He praises virginity and marriage. In speaking about virginity he says of marriage: "The worthy marriage towers above every earthly gift, such as a tree in fruit. . . as a root of virginity, as a cultivator of the rational and living branches". Then he says: "Remove the worthy marriage and you do not find the flower of virginity". Moreover, the comparison is between two worthy things, because St. Amphilochios says: "Saying these things, we are not introducing a fight between virginity and marriage; we admire both as mutually indebted". To conclude, he says characteristically: "For without devout knowledge of divine things neither is virginity modest nor marriage worthy".

And the holy Chrysostom teaches many things about this subject. He says: "For our married people have everything in common with the monks except marriage". All people should adapt themselves to Christ's commandments. Therefore the holy Father says characteristically: "If we are temperate neither marriage nor nourishment nor anything else will prevent us from being able to be well-pleasing to God". If marriage and raising children was going to hinder us on the path of virtue, the creator of all things would not have brought marriage into our life".

What Basil the Great says is also characteristic: "We people, monks and married, are all required to obey the Gospel."

Therefore we cannot justify our indolence by the particular way of life which we have chosen, nor can we criticise and dismiss another way of life which is not like our own. To be sure, there are degrees and spiritual ages.

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Elder Paisios: On Canons and Penances

By Elder Paisios the Athonite

The Pedalion [Rudder or Book of Canons] is called the Rudder, because it guides man towards salvation - sometimes in one way and other times in another way; as a captain of the ship turns the rudder to the left or to the right, in order to bring the ship to shore. If he were to navigate the ship in a straight line, without turning when needed, he would bring it upon rocks, sink it and everyone on board would drown. If the Spiritual Father uses Canons of the Church as if they were loose military cannons - and not with discernment, in accordance with each person's needs and the repentance demonstrated - then instead of healing souls, he'll be committing a crime.

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What Will Be the Excuse of Our Generation At the Judgment Seat of Christ?

By Vladimir Berzonsky

This is the weakness of this generation: Christ is not in command. The whim of the individual is the absolute authority. How fragile our bonds of union must be when they are held together by arbitrariness and whim. Nothing but individual fancy is accepted as supreme. Reason itself has fallen by the wayside, not that it has been killed, it has merely died of atrophy! We have in modern times "no-fault" divorces, which means that no reason is needed to divide a family any more, only the caprice of our partner.

Is it not amazing, this culture we live in, with its "no-fault" divorces and "no-fault" automobile insurance, suggesting a do-as-you-please lifestyle that never requires an explanation? What shall we make of the petition in every Orthodox prayer service that implores from God "A good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ"? Term is obsolete, a vestige of another day when people feared for their place in heaven, assuming that the Sacred Scriptures are to be taken literally when they speak of heaven, hell, and a final judgment based on our deeds and misdeeds here on earth. What defense shall we give when called upon to account for our lives? Perhaps we ought to shop around for a faith that condones everything a person does, where worship is not so much praise to the Lord as a form of testimonial to good people who come together once a week to celebrate their goodness.

Maybe we might plead innocent by reason of insanity, basing our case on the evidence that the last decades of the twentieth century were dominated by the conviction that this generation believed itself exempt from the rules of right and wrong that had been the governing dynamic of every preceding generation. We might say that we were a people above laws and discipline, taught even in our schools that we can do as we please as long as we are "sincere" and "true to ourselves". Will that hold, I wonder, in the ultimate Supreme Court?

Not likely. From the evidence of the Gospels we must believe instead that on that day Christ Jesus, with all due tenderness and compassion, will listen carefully to such arguments, and then declare: "You know better than that. Surely you understand at the center of your heart that my love is more than merely self-love. My command was not to love yourself, but to 'love one another'. That you failed in your sufficient time on earth. Punish you? No, I have no intention of inflicting any punishment upon you ... It is enough punishment to leave you to the self you love so much. Go now. Love yourself for all eternity. That is the punishment and the 'reward' you have earned."

From The Gift of Love, pp. 177-178.

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Mixing the Unmixable: Sensuality and Theology

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

There is no more difficult task than to explain spiritual things to men who think and judge only sensually. St. John Chrysostom says: "A soul which is given over to passions cannot achieve anything great and noble, for it suffers from a grievous blindness, like that of eyes darkened by the flow of pus." Usually the most sensual men inquire about the greatest divine mysteries. They do not inquire about that in order to know how they can be saved, but rather to confuse the faithful and to ridicule the Faith, and to justify their own sinful and passionate life. Unable to raise themselves to the first rung of the heavenly ladder, they fantasize about the last rung. Brethren, when such as these inquire about the profoundest mysteries of the regeneration of the soul and the Kingdom of Heaven, ask them, first of all, to fulfill the ten basic commandments of God. If they do this, then their souls will be opened to the understanding of the Divine Mysteries, inasmuch as that understanding is necessary for the cleansing of their sins and passions, and for eternal salvation.

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Russian Icon of the Panagia In 123 Forms

Russian icon dating to the late 19th century.

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Elder Cleopas On the End Times

1. A Sign of the End Times

One day Elder Cleopas met a holy ascetic in the forest and asked him:

"Tell me, Father, when will the end of the world come?"

And the righteous hesychast told him:

"You know when the end of the world will come? When a road will not exist from one neighborhood to another."

That is to say, when love will not exist from one person to another.

2. Do Not Fear the Coming of Antichrist

A few years ago when people were disturbed that the Antichrist is coming, with wars and similar things, Fr. Cleopas would tell them in a loud voice:

"The Father is at the wheel! Take and read verses 10 and 11 of Psalm 32:

'The Lord scatters abroad the counsels of the nations, and He sets aside the reasoning of the peoples; and He rejects the counsels of rulers. The counsel of the Lord abides forever, the thoughts of His heart from generation to generation.'"

He would also encourage them saying:

"Be not disturbed nor afraid, because things will not come to pass as they want. Whatever they want, let them do it. You should not fear. Pray and make the sign of the cross with faith, and the demons shall flee."

3. Learn To Fast

Father Cleopas would say: "Learn to fast, because the time will come when you will eat one potato a week."

4. Spiritual Coldness

A father asked the Elder:

"What will happen, Elder, after your departure to the Lord?"

Elder Cleopa responded:

"There will come stronger cold and hard frost."

Here he of course means spiritual cold, where everyone will be overly involved with earthly things and there will be lack of interest in spiritual things along with a great subservience to the passions.

From The Life and Struggles of Elder Cleopa, Romanian Hesychast and Teacher by Archimandrite Ioanichie Balan. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew A Champion of Orthodox Unity

By Panagiotis Andriopoulos, theologian

In our earlier article titled "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Dialogist", we demonstrated the great contribution of Patriarch Bartholomew to the cause of dialogue at all levels: with the sister Orthodox Churches, the Christian confessions, the monotheistic religions in the modern world and every human person. For who has met the Patriarch and did not enjoy real, not formal, contact, which consists in looking into the face of another and having a genuine interest for others. Even if it is a few minutes "off the cuff" meeting.

Dialogue, therefore, describes the Ecumenical Patriarch. And now, there is held in the Phanar a Synaxis of the Primates of the Patriarchates and the Archbishop of Cyprus, which convened at the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarch, and some are alarming that it will supposedly strike at the unity of the Orthodox ... from this selected Synaxis of the Primates of the East.

But if anyone considers recent Church history, notably the twenty year Patriarchal reign of Bartholomew, they will immediately realize that never in history has there been so many and so frequent Pan-Orthodox Assemblies. Of these Primates are all the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, and even representatives of the local Churches at the Pan-Orthodox Conferences, for various topics, and countless opportunities for informal meetings within and outside the Phanar with Primates and representatives of Orthodox Churches. This is because the goal of Patriarch Bartholomew is the unity of the Orthodox, despite the occasional problems that will always exist. Even his hometown, Imvros, and even Cappadocia, were made Inter-Orthodox by the Patriarch, inviting with him Primates and representatives of Churches.

Even in Soumela in Pontus last year and this year, he sent a public invitation to the Moscow Patriarch Kiril to concelebrate Liturgy side by side in mid-August in the historic monastery.

And now, some - maybe not that many - come to challenge the Synaxis of the Primates of the Patriarchates and the Archbishop of Cyprus, convened for a specific reason (the fate of the Christian peoples of the Middle East amid the turmoil in countries of the Arab world), and accuse the Ecumenical Patriarch of intentions that are totally unrealistic.

Someone put on the table once again the logic of numbers: the Primates represent only a small sheepfold compared to all the Orthodox. This ridiculous "argument" does not need to be refuted by anyone. Just think of the Archshepherd Christ, Who immediately ran for the one sheep, even though He had 99 with Him. And even so, those who make up these Churches no matter how few they are, they are the first priority of a responsible leader.

In short: Once again, the Ecumenical Patriarch heeds the messages and the developments of the times and acts accordingly. Any who are unhappy - though publicly no Orthodox Church took a stand against the Synaxis - let them stay with their self-pity and opportunism. Patriarch Bartholomew thankfully looks forward. Until the various primates return from this event, he would have made the next leap ... greater than the damage.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Apophatic (Negative) and Cataphatic (Positive) Theology

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

We often make a watertight distinction between apophatic (negative) and cataphatic (positive) theology. We insist that apophatic theology is more perfect, while cataphatic is imperfect. Still the worst is when we see apophatic theology only in the existence of a few terms and expressions.

True, in the patristic teachings we encounter such a division. The expression of St. John the Damascene is characteristic: "The Divinity, then, is limitless and incomprehensible, and His limitlessness and incomprehensibility is all that can be understood about Him. All that we state affirmatively about God does not show His nature, but only what relates to His nature". But then again St. John the Damascene says: "Moreover, there are things that are stated affirmatively of God, but which have the force of extreme negation".

There is an interpenetration between apophatic and cataphatic theology. Theology is one, and it is experience, revelation. The saints attained deification and saw God. They saw that God is Light, they saw God's energy. Thus God is participated in with regard to His energy, but He is altogether unshared by man with regard to His essence. But when the saints wish to express this experience, they use negative figures. They say, for instance, that God is Light, but at the same time add "because of His surpassing brightness" in relation to the created light of knowledge it is also "darkness". Moreover, even the so-called affirmative expressions, such as that God is love, in reality are impossible for human reason to understand in the terms of human thought and employing representations.

We can say that the knowledge of God is experience. The way to knowledge of God is apophatic, which means that we concentrate our nous in our heart, following, according to St. Dionysios the Areopagite, the uniform concentration of the nous. The experience of God, of God's energy, is positive. But the expression of this experience is formulated also by negative expressions("invisible", "incomprehensible", "indescribable" etc. ), because of man's inability to express this experience.

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A Young Buddhists Path Towards Orthodox Christianity

My name is Johan Trisanjaya. I am of Javanese ethnicity in Indonesia. I was born in 1982 in the village of Prigi in Central Java. I was raised in a Buddhist family; my father is a government servant and my mother is a house wife. Most people in our village are Muslim, but many adhere to Buddhism. As a Buddhist, I was so active that I was appointed as the President of the Buddhist Youth Association.

The essence of Buddhist teaching is “to love without limit”, where the law of deeds (“karma”) is emphasized, in which all our deeds in this life will bear fruit in our next reincarnation. The love is not limited to only humans either, but in loving plants and animals too, since they could have formerly been human. When you die with a good karma you will be born in the next body in a high state of being. When you die with bad karma, you will be born either in a lower status of life in society, or even as an animal or in the demonic realm.

As I was about to start high school my cousin, Fr Alexios, came to my village and told me to go with him to Solo and to go to school there. He had been a Buddhist before becoming an Orthodox priest. I agreed. I felt that it was okay to be exposed to Christianity only for three years, because it would help to widen my horizon. I had always attended Church worship and gatherings, but I always sat at the back row since I felt guilty about being a Buddhist but praying as a Christian.

Finally, out of my confusion, I left Fr. Alexios’s house and returned back home for two weeks without even a leave of absence from school. During these two weeks, I lost all direction in my life and felt confused. I began to act in a mindless way. I started to do things that I have never done before to the surprise and embarrassment of my father since he is considered a pillar in society.

One day I felt as though someone whispered to me and commanded me to go back to Fr. Alexios in Solo, so I went back. After some days in Solo, I began to learn about Orthodoxy again. I felt the urge to be baptized, and Fr. Alexios agreed. I was surprised that even though I did not go to school for two weeks I was not even reprimanded or punished by the school, as would be expected. After I was baptized with the baptismal name of “Johanes” (John), I have been helping the ministry of Fr. Alexios. In the year 2006, I was elevated by Metropolitan Hilarion to “Reader.”

What I found liberating in Christianity is that Christ had defeated the power of death through His resurrection so that there are no more endless cycles of birth and death in reincarnation, and it is no longer the law of karma that has power over you, but the power of grace though Christ’s victory over sin, death and the devil. The Buddhists are so frightened by karma, because they are frightened by the prospect of reincarnation into a lower realm, but there is no fear of God, since God does not exist. But in order to achieve good karma there are so many difficult regulations and requirements to be achieved; it is as if there was no grace of God.

Having understood the beauty of the teaching of Orthodoxy, I now have a very strong desire to serve Christ, either as a priest or as a layperson. I am preparing myself to go to seminary either in Russia or in the United States in order to realize this dream. I have been spending time with Fr. Daniel during his last visit, driving him across Java and up to Bali. Please pray for me. Thank you.

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St. John Chrysostom On Poverty and Wealth

By Fr. George Florovsky

Chrysostom frequently spoke about poverty and wealth, themes which were set for him by life in the large, noisy city. For him, these and all other social themes had primarily a moral significance, and he dealt with them in relation to the rules of Christian behavior. He judged the life around him on the basis of its morality. Everywhere he saw injustice, cruelty, suffering, and misery, and he understood that this was caused by the spirit of greed and by social inequality. He warned against idle luxury and also against wealth as a source of temptation, since money threatens to corrupt the man who possesses it. Wealth by itself has no value but is only a theatrical mask which covers the true image of man. However, the wealthy man comes to value his riches. He begins to deceive himself and he becomes attached to something which is good in appearance only. In Chrysostom's opinion there is danger not only in wealth which has been acquired by dishonest means but in all forms of personal property. These are not harmful in themselves but they may stimulate the will to desire things which are perishable and transient. "The love for wealth is an unnatural passion," Chrysostom writes. "The desire for wealth is neither natural nor necessary. It is superfluous." This movement of the will is dangerous and riches are a dangerous burden. "Wealth is harmful for you not because it arms thieves against you, nor because it completely darkens your mind but because it makes you the captives of soulless possessions and distracts you from the service of God."

The possession of wealth involves an unavoidable contradiction. By the spirit of greed men are attached to material things, but God teaches us to despise things and to renounce them. "There is harm not only in trying to gain wealth but also in excessive concern with even the most necessary things," Chrysostom writes. "Christ has demonstrated what kind of harm can come from the passion for money but His commandment goes even beyond this. Not only does He order us to scorn wealth, but he forbids us to be concerned that the food we eat is the best we can possibly get: 'Do not worry your soul about what you eat'." This does not exhaust the subject. "It is not enough to despise wealth," Chrysostom writes, "but you must also feed the poor and, more importantly, you must follow Christ." Thus another contradiction is revealed: the worldly drive of greed and the desire for the accumulation and preservation of material goods is opposed to the command of the Gospels to "give all you have to the poor." Against this background we see with greater clarity the injustice of the social inequality in the world. In the face of poverty and misery, all wealth is an unjust and dead thing. It testifies to hard-heartedness and the absence of love.

It is from this point of view that Chrysostom disapproves of the magnificent decoration of churches. "A church is not a place in which to melt gold or forge silver," he writes. "It is a triumphant assembly of the angels. Therefore it is souls which we demand as an offering because it is for the sake of souls that God accepts our other offerings. It was not at a silver table and it was not from a golden vessel that Christ offered His blood to His disciples to drink but nevertheless everything there was precious and called forth reverence, for it was filled with the Spirit. Do you want to honor the body of Christ? Do not scorn to see Christ naked. What good does it do you if here you honor His silken coverlings while outside the Church you continue to tolerate the coldness and nakedness of others? What good does it do you if the altar of Christ is covered with golden vessels, while Christ Himself suffers hunger? You make a golden goblet but you offer no cooling water to go with ft. Christ as a homeless pilgrim wanders and asks for shelter, but you, instead of accepting Him, adorn your floors, your walls, and the tops of your pillars, and you put silver harnesses on your horses. But Christ remains bound in the dungeon and you do not even want to look at Him."

It seemed to Chrysostom that each thing that one man puts aside is taken away from someone else who needs it, for there cannot be a man who is rich without another man being poor because of it. "The source and root of wealth must definitely be hidden in some act of injustice," he writes. Chrysostom did not consider that poverty as such was a virtue. Poverty attracted his attention as a form of need and suffering, and he considered that Christ is present among the poor, since He comes to us in the image of a beggar and not in the guise of a wealthy man. Furthermore, when poverty is voluntarily chosen for the sake of God and accepted with joy, it can be a path to virtue. This is primarily because a man without possessions is freer than a wealthy man and has fewer attachments and worries. It is easier for him to live and to strive to perfect himself.

Chrysostom knew also that poverty could be a heavy burden not only in terms of external and material things, but internally, as a source of envy, spite, and despair. For this reason he tried to fight against poverty, but his attention was always occupied with its moral implications. In this respect he functioned as a spiritual pastor, not as a social reformer. Although it is true that he did have an ideal vision of society, this ideal was primarily moral. It was the ideal of equality because inequality makes true love impossible.

The basic premise of Chrysostom's thought is that strictly speaking there can be no such thing as "personal property" because everything belongs to God and to Him only. All things are given by Him as a gift in the form of a loan. Everything is God's, and all that man can claim as truly his own are his good works. Everything God gives is intended for common ownership. "If the good things we enjoy belong to the Master of all of us, then they all belong equally to our fellow slaves. That which belongs to the Master belongs to everyone in common. Do we not see a similar arrangement in great houses?"

"The possessions of the Emperor, the city, the squares, and the streets, belong to all men, and we all use them in an equal degree. Look at the economy that God has arranged. He has created some things that are for everyone, including the air, sun, water, earth, heaven, sea, light, and stars, and He has divided them equally among all men, as if they were brothers. This, if nothing else, should shame the human race. The Emperor has made other things common to all, including the baths, cities, squares, and streets. There is not the slightest disagreement over this common property but everything is accomplished peacefully. If someone tries to take something and claim it as his own personal possession, then quarrels arise. It is as if the very forces of natures were complaining, and as if at that time when God was gathering them from everywhere they were trying with all their might to separate among themselves, to isolate them selves from each other, and to distinguish their own individual property by coldly saying that 'this is yours but that is mine'. If this were true, quarrels and bitterness would arise, but where there is nothing of this sort neither quarrels nor disagreements occur. In this way we see that for us as well a common and not an individual ownership of things has been ordained, and that this is according to nature itself. Is not the reason that no one ever goes to court about the ownership of a public square the fact that this square belongs to all?"

It seems to Chrysostom that in this respect even the animals are better than men. "They hold everything in common, the earth, and springs, and pastures, and mountains, and forests, and not one of them has more than the others. But you, O man, the most gentle of animals, have become more fierce than the beasts. In a single one of your houses you store up enough to feed thousands and even many thousands of the poor. How can this be, when we have one common nature, and much else in common besides this? We share a common heaven, sun, moon, choir of stars, air, sea, fire, water, earth, life, death, youth, old age, sickness, health, and the need for food and clothing. Our spiritual goods are also common to all: our holy altar, the body of our Lord, His sacred blood, the promised Kingdom, the bath of renewal, the purification of sins, truth, sanctity, redemption, and ineffable bliss. Is it therefore not madness for those who share so much in common, their nature, grace, covenant, and laws, to have such a passion for wealth that it causes them to forget their equality and to exceed the savageness of beasts? This is all the worse since they must of necessity soon leave these things behind them."

Chrysostom sees the source of inequality in man's free will and desire for personal property. Free will determines how an individual will manage the gifts he had been given, and Chrysostom considers that this is the heart of the problem. He does not recommend poverty for all men and, although he denounces superfluous luxury, it is primarily inequality to which he is opposed. Chrysostom demands equality and justice. Material goods are given by God and for this reason there can be no cause to abominate them. However, they must not be used to the personal advantage of one man in such a way that another man suffers for lack of them. Chrysostom believes that the problem can be solved by love because "love seeks nothing for itself." It seems to him that this solution was realized by the earliest members of the Church in the manner described in the Acts of the Apostles. "They renounced property and rejoiced greatly because in this way they gained blessings that were even greater. The cold words 'mine and yours' did not exist, and there was joy at the altar . . . The expression 'mine and yours', which is so harsh and has caused so many wars in the world, was driven out of that holy Church, and men on earth lived like angels in heaven. The poor did not envy the rich, for there were no rich, and the rich did not despise the poor, for there were no poor. At that time things were not the way they are now. Now those who have property give to the poor, but at that time it was not so . . . All of them were equal and all wealth was shared among them." This example has been frequently cited by the supporters of communal monasticism who absolutely reject the right to personal property.

Chrysostom wanted to realize the example provided by monastic communities in the world, having in mind a comparatively small society in Antioch or Constantinople. In his homilies he tried to demonstrate how the voluntary renunciation of property and its equal distribution could provide for the needs of all. This is the way in which the property of the Church was organized at that time. It was held in common and was distributed by the bishop. Part of it was devoted to upkeep of churches and to the support of the clergy, but most of it was the "property of the poor." Chrysostom emphasized that such a socialization of property could be truly effective only if it was voluntary and if it was the expression of true self-renunciation and love.

All of this would presuppose a high degree of moral development and perfection. It would be the ultimate and ideal expression of Christian charity. However, Chrysostom was content to limit his demands to generous almsgiving and works of charity. His conception of charity was very broad, extending from material contributions to consolation and comfort. "Is it not also an act of great charity when a soul, which is overwhelmed by grief, threatened by extreme danger, and held in thrall by the flames (of passion), is freed by someone from this affliction?"

Source: The Eastern Fathers of the Fourth Century

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