Elder Theophylaktos Nanopoulos from the Athonite Cell of Saint Nicholas (known as the "Cell of the Typographers"), which is under Iveron Monastery, once told the following story with tears in his eyes:
"During the years of the German Occupation I was arrested by the Germans, together with my brother according to the flesh Papa-Panteleimon, and they took us to Dachau. One night they took us outside to execute us. It was winter and they undressed us. We waited for our turn. There was no hope for our salvation.
Then I remembered the Holy Forty Martyrs, and I turned and said to him: 'Hey, Panteleimon! What's the Apolytikion to the Holy Forty Martyrs? Do you know it?'
Then Father Panteleimon began to chant in the first tone:
'We entreat You, O Lord, by the sufferings endured for You by the Saints, and we pray You, who loves mankind, heal all our pain.'
Immediately after this, a warmth wrapped itself around the both of us, and we did not feel the cold. It was the presence of the Saints, who themselves suffered from the cold.
The night passed and the morning came. While we awaited death, an order came for us two monks to not be executed. No one survived, except us. This is why they wrote our names on a sign of the executed there at the camp."
"During the years of the German Occupation I was arrested by the Germans, together with my brother according to the flesh Papa-Panteleimon, and they took us to Dachau. One night they took us outside to execute us. It was winter and they undressed us. We waited for our turn. There was no hope for our salvation.
Then I remembered the Holy Forty Martyrs, and I turned and said to him: 'Hey, Panteleimon! What's the Apolytikion to the Holy Forty Martyrs? Do you know it?'
Then Father Panteleimon began to chant in the first tone:
'We entreat You, O Lord, by the sufferings endured for You by the Saints, and we pray You, who loves mankind, heal all our pain.'
Immediately after this, a warmth wrapped itself around the both of us, and we did not feel the cold. It was the presence of the Saints, who themselves suffered from the cold.
The night passed and the morning came. While we awaited death, an order came for us two monks to not be executed. No one survived, except us. This is why they wrote our names on a sign of the executed there at the camp."
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
