When Elder Ambrose Lazaris Prayed With a Bear

 

Elder Ambrose Lazaris said the following:

"When, my child, you see wild beasts in the wild, make the sign of the cross over them and talk to them.

Don't leave immediately, but don't disturb them either.

The bear, let's say, if you don't disturb it, it doesn't disturb you.

I once slept next to a bear and we prayed together.

Man, however, disturbs you with words, kills you with his tongue and eyes.

Today he has become worse than the animal.

Therefore, prayer and repentance are needed."

Source: From the book Γέρων Αμβρόσιος Λάζαρης, Ο πνευματικός της Μονής Δαδίου, Ο επιστήθιος φίλος του αγίου Πορφυρίου, Translation by John Sanidopoulos.

 

 

"In Order to Get Married You Have to Believe in Three Things" (Elder Ambrose Lazaris)

Elder Ambrose Lazaris (+ 2006) was asked by a spiritual child:

"Elder, I have a question about my life. Why didn't I get married?"

"My child, in order to get married you have to believe in three things:

1. You have to believe in the person you are going to marry,

2. You have to believe in marriage with that person,  

3. You have to believe in God.

And you have to believe in all three, because if you do not believe in the person and in marriage, you will either not marry or you will not marry this person.

But, if you do not believe in God, when the marriage is shaken or when the other person is shaken for any reason, you will not have someone to hold you and someone to secure this marriage."

Source: From the book Γέρων Αμβρόσιος Λάζαρης, Ο πνευματικός της Μονής Δαδίου, Ο επιστήθιος φίλος του αγίου Πορφυρίου. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.

 

 

"A Woman Died and the Whole Place was Fragrant"

 

There was a very poor woman in a small village of Aitoloakarnania who had three children. She managed to raise them with incredible deprivations and difficulties, while at the same time with a unique dignity! This, was Mrs. Vasiliki.

She died on the eve of the Dormition of the Panagia in 1998. The next day, August 15, the cheap coffin with her body, which was on the wagon of the small farm truck of the priest, was headed to the cemetery.

Portrait of a Philanthropist

Without my asking, Elder Ambrose (Lazaris) told me at one point: "Stavros, your mother is in Paradise."

I was shocked. It had been fifteen days since I slept. To learn from this life that my mother is up there - I was sure, almost sure, about my mother. My mother was an ascetic in her life. Always smiling.

In the last thirty years of her life she never left her house.

She had seven children.

She treated her father-in-law, who reposed at the age of 94, as if he was her own father.

She was very merciful.

She would steal money from my father's pants and would secretly give it to the poor.

She hosted beggars at home almost every day and made a table for them. Then she would pack food for them in a bag.

She shined with joy.

Seventeen years after her death, we her children found out, by chance, that she was awarded by the Metropolis of Demitriados and Almyros for her philanthropic work when she was younger.

She was anxious to give hospitality to others and only by force would she sit at the table to eat herself.

We have a farm of fifteen acres. During the German occupation it was full of fruit trees. From the 100 chickens we had in those days, without reservation she would take fifty eggs a day and together with fruit she would distribute them to the poor. She would also constantly give to her relatives in Volos. It made her happy to give.

May the Lord grant her soul rest.

This is what I learned from Elder Ambrose. Let us not forget the souls. They ask for our help. 

 

Source: Translation by John Sanidopoulos.

What Saint Nektarios Was Doing on September 11, 2001

Elder Ambrose is pictured hugging the blessed Metropolitan of Sisaniou, Anthony

Towards the end of August 2001, someone asked Elder Ambrose of Dadiou to pray to Saint Nektarios to help him, and the Elder said:

“Let the Saint be, my child. He is now in America running to save lives.”

On September 11th, the disaster at the Twin Towers took place. Some months earlier Elder Ambrose had seen what was going to happen and had warned that it was going to change history.

"A great evil will begin in America, and not just in September. Alas!"

He had given this warning to the Metropolitan of Sisaniou, Anthony, in one of the latter’s visits, in the presence of other people. However, he did not give any explanation.

"Your Eminence, wait and see what calamity will befall the Americans in two months."

Read also:

Two Occasions Elder Ambrose Lazaris Saw Saint Nektarios

Two Occasions Elder Ambrose Lazaris Saw Saint Nektarios

Elder Ambrose (Lazaris) of Dadiou

Elder Ambrose had the blessing to speak with Saint Nektarios many times - God knows how many. As far as I know, he helped him escape twice from surgery. On the day before the surgery, he would always make him well, and after he would leave him to fight the intolerable pain, with patience, and without complaining. He would only pray and glorify God, continuously.

The first time was in Switzerland when the Bishop there brought him for better treatment. The examination showed that he had a stone the size of a walnut that only surgery could remove. The Elder tells us: "On the eve of the surgery, at night, while I was alone in my hospital room, a monk appeared to me. It was Saint Nektarios. He told me: 'Can you come out so we can speak?' We then went out to the hallway and sat down. We spoke for about fifteen minutes, about different things, and I told him about my surgery and the stone in my kidney. After encouraging me, he blessed me and left."

Whe Saint Nektarios left the Elder felt the need to urinate, so he urinated in a small toilet, with terrible pains. Then he came out with the urine and the stone the size of a walnut. (I myself have seen it). With a paper towel he took it and put it in a drawer at his bedside.

Elder Ambrose Lazaris: "Marriage Is Like A Row Boat"

When a certain man with his wife visited the Monastery [Dadiou] for the first time, they had the following experience with the Elder [Ambrose Lazaris], who of course knew nothing about them previously.

They greeted him, received his blessing, and stayed silently beside him for a little while. Eventually he asked them their names. Then, suddenly, he said to the husband:

"Your hands and feet will be cut off!"

Elder Ambrose: Compline is Like an Umbrella

Once he [Elder Ambrose of Dadiou] went with a certain spiritual child of his to hear a talk of a known clerical preacher, somewhere in Athens. Afterwards there was a discussion and a young man in the audience asked the priest the following question:

"Father, I cannot read Compline or the Six Psalms, nor can I follow the Divine Liturgy. The only thing I can do is to say the 'Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me'. Will I be saved?"

Four Holy Elders Who Reposed on December 2nd

 

Today is major day for Orthodox Christians, as we remember four contemporary Holy Elders and Spiritual Pillars of our time that reposed on December 2nd. In the order of the photo above, they are:

 

1. Elder Porphyrios Kausokalyvites (1906 - 1991)

  

2. Elder Ambrose of Dadiou (1914 - 2006)

  

3. Elder Cleopa Ilie of Romania (1912 - 1998)

  

4. Elder Elpidios Neosketiotes (1913 - 1983)

  

Eternal be their Memory! May we all be in their prayers! 

 

 

Xeropotamou Monastery and the Forty Holy Martyrs

Xeropotamou Monastery on Mount Athos is dedicated to the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste. Oral tradition makes the founder of the Monastery the Empress Pulcheria, who lived in the fifth century, while another version regards the founders as the tenth century Emperors Constantine VI Porphyrogenetus and Romanus I Lecapenus. Saint Paul of Xeropotamou is said to have become an ascetic in a cell near an old monastery where Xeropotamou now stands. This old monastery is the one said to have been built by Empress Pulcheria and dedicated to the Forty Holy Martyrs after the discovery of their holy relics in her time. St. Paul of Xeropotamou also wrote the Canon to the Forty Martyrs. The katholikon today is dedicated to the Forty Holy Martyrs and was built in between 1761-1763 on the site of an earlier church; the iconography was done in 1783. It celebrates its main feast on March 9. Among the treasures of Xeropotamou are the paten of Pulcheria, made of steatite, relics of many saints including those of the Forty Holy Martyrs, gold embroidered vestments, and priceless episcopal staffs, but its greatest treasure consists of two pieces of the True Cross, the largest anywhere in the world, which have a hole made by one of the nails of the Crucifixion. According to St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, the library contains manuscripts detailing the lives of the Forty Holy Martyrs.

(For the history of the icons and manuscripts at Xeropotamou pertaining to the Forty Martyrs, see here. There is an english summary on page 8 which is followed by some icons of the Forty Martyrs from Xeropotamou.)

Two Miracles of the Holy Forty Martyrs at Xeropotamou Monastery

A. The Forty Martyrs and Sultan Selim I (d. 1519):

Xeropotamou Monastery has survived many earthquakes and fires, having been rebuilt many times over by several rulers. One of these rulers was Sultan Selim I. Pirates had burned down the monastery in 1507, and one day the Forty Holy Martyrs appeared to Selim in a vision to restore it. In return for this restoration, the Forty Martyrs promised him that they would help him in his battle against the Arabs. Long after the sultan's death in 1519, his successors continued to provide oil for the lamps before the icon and relics of the Forty Holy Martyrs in the katholikon of Xeropotamou. Today the monastery has in its archives a Hatt Shariff from 1517 documenting the large donations Selim made to the monastery and its facilities.

Here is the official record of Selim's vision:

"During his residence in Egypt, Sultan Selim saw forty large-bodied lads with golden chariots, which appeared to be running like angels, and they said: "We are, O King, helpers of the Ottomans and co-workers in the victory against your enemy. As a reward for the good we have done for you, when tomorrow comes, if you will, some spiritual (Ρουχμπάνιδες) hermits will come asking of you a will of your kingdom to restore our house, in which is found our relics. If you have love and want to have us as friends on other occasions, you must not only grant them a will to build our house, but to give them some of your imperial friendly treasures as well."

The 10 Articles of the Hatt Shariff defined the following:

1. Restore Xeropotamou after a recent fire.

2. Give permission to the monks to restore the Monastery as necessary.

3. 40 oil lamps are to burn before the relics of the saints.

4. For the Monastery to be able to see the four parts of the horizon.

5. The monks are to be granted immunity.

6. 10 of the best workers are to be brought to draw up the borders of the Monastery and the Metochion, with the caretaker of the Monastery being Ibrahim Agha.

7. Confirms the Hatt Shariff of Sultan Murad Yao.

8. If a monk leaves the Monastery for another, he is to be punished with a fine of 100 piastres, having received this Monastery from the Agha's land, and for Xeropotamou to be notified.

9. No one should inherit all of Mount Athos, but only the Monastery to which they belong.

10. The present Hatt Shariff should be kept in the Monastery, and only a copy is to be used when exported by the fathers for use in courts, etc. Mentioned also here are aphorisms against the violators of this document.


B. From the life of Elder Ambrose Lazaris (+2006):

The blessed elder told me [Abbot Ephraim of Vatopaidi] in a conversation that after his military duty was completed (he was a Tsolia for the Palace Guard), he wanted to go to the Holy Mountain. However, he did not know where nor how to go. Suddenly there appeared to him a young man around 25 years of age and said to him: "I know those lands. Come with me." And this is how it happened.

They embarked together, went to the sea and boarded the ship. "He also gave me," he said, "bread which we ate together all the days we were together. His name however he did not tell me, though I also never asked him. This is how we arrived in Daphne and from there we walked into the Holy Mountain.

"As long as he was with me, I felt greatly protected. Moving on he showed me the Monastery of Xeropotamou where the Holy Forty Martyrs are honored. He asked me if I wanted us to go venerate and I approved. We entered the church (the katholikon of the Monastery) and as I was venerating the icon, forty young men encircled us. Then the young man told me that 'it is the Forty Holy Martyrs and they are rejoicing because you are becoming a monk'.

"From there we continued along the road and arrived at Karyes and from their the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou. Here the young man stopped, he showed me the Holy Monastery, and said: 'Here you will live Spyro. You will become a monk, you will be patient and be obedient to the elder' ... and he disappeared."