On behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and to celebrate the official Canonization of Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva on 27 November 2013, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew received on 17 December 2013 Hieromonk Fr. George Alevras of Kavsokalyva from the homonymous Sacred Skete of Mount Athos.
During the scheduled meeting, dirt was offered from the Sacred Memorial of Saint Porphyrios, as well as from the place where the Holy Elder Porphyrios received the magnificent Grace of the Holy Spirit.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, receiving the unexpected gift, said the following:
"I had the blessing many years ago to meet the Holy Elder Porphyrios, at the Sacred Hermitage of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ in Milesi of Attica, of which he was Founder. With particular emotion I received his blessing, realizing even then his empirical state in the Holy Spirit. His life was a life of known Holiness. I am aware of the exhiliration and the sense of cosolation with which the people received the Canonization in these difficult times they are going through. Finally we were informed of the concise homily of the Holy Metropolitan Meliton of Philadelphia at the festal Divine Liturgy that took place at the Sacred Hermitage of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ in Milesi of Attica, according to which he characterized the Blessed Holy Elder Porphyrios of Kavsokalyva as a true leader of the people."
Then Fr. George Alevras said the following:
"Your All Holiness, we convey to you the respects of the brotherhood of our Holy Elder Porphyrios, from the Sacred Skete of Kavsokalyva of the Holy Mountain. Allow me, Your All Holiness, to remind you of the words you publicly issued in the year 2009, that the underlying global economic crisis is primarily a spiritual crisis. It is therefore, Your All Holiness, indeed a balm of consolation the formal Canonization of the Holy Elder Porphyrios for our people, showing his leadership in the Holy Spirit and not just the economic. You therefore showed, Your All Holiness, the real way out of the crisis."
Fr. George Alevras then gave Patriarch Bartholomew the collectible volume titled Ioannis Kapodistrias: the Saint of Politics, which contains previously unpublished letters of the first Post-Byzantine leader of the Nation. Admiring the work, Mr. Bartholomew said:
"I was recently informed of the proposition by Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki at the Standing Sacred Synod of the Church of Greece, regarding the investigation for the concurrent conditions to Canonize Ioannis Kapodistrias. I also know that the hieromonk responsible, through the Governor, for the Sacred Synopsis of the time, was from Imbros and named Bartholomew Koutloumousianos. The present volume reminds me of the identity of my own name and place of origin."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
