Fr. John Kalaides and the Miracle of Saint Paraskevi

 By Miltiadis Tsesmetzis, Teacher

In the village of Sintiki in the prefecture of Serres, where the holy father lived, there is a Chapel of Saint Paraskevi, at the foot of the mountain. Because the area has many chapels, where many miracles took place, my grandfather used to tell us that this place is a second Mount Athos!

So he [Fr. John Kalaides ] once told us:

When Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Appeared to our Holy Father John Kalaides

 By Miltiades Tsesmetzes,
Teacher in Serres

During our visit to Fr. John Kalaides, he told us how he met the three new saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene, and since then his life has been completely connected with them! He said to us:

"In 1987, when I was in Neochori, I was suffering from renal colic. It was then that I received a package, without a return address, which contained the book of Photios Kontoglou (A Great Sign), regarding the lives of the three newly-appeared Saints and the miraculous events surrounding the finding of their holy relics. Reading it I was amazed by their shocking martyrdom and contacted the abbess of the Holy Monastery in Mytilene. I asked her to send me oil from the lamps of the Saints, along with holy water and certain books containing their miracles. The abbess Eugenia sent them to me and I began to cross myself with these blessings, as well as to read the books of the Saints (Fr. John always read sacred books standing up!). When a Supplicatory Canon was chanted to Saint Raphael, at the end of the service I would read to the faithful the miracles of the Saints.

Father John Kalaides and his Patron Saint John the Forerunner and Baptist

By Miltiades Tsesmetzes, Teacher

The holy Father [John Kalaides] honored Saint John the Forerunner very much, whose holy name he worthily bore.

Every year we visited him, on this day [January 7th], to wish him many years and to receive his blessing. I will never forget a year we went to wish him well for his celebration and he miraculously healed in front of our eyes a very special person of ours, touching him on the back, exactly where he had for a long time strong pains! This was done without knowing the slightest thing about his problem!

The Life of the Holy Protopresbyter Elder John Kalaides (+ 2009)

By Protopresbyter George Trapezanlides

Childhood and Youthful Years

Father John Kalaides was born in Kamaroto, Serres, to pious parents Chrysostomos and Theodora on May 8, 1925, the feast day of St. John the Theologian. He thus took the name of the evangelist and beloved disciple of our Lord, John - an act that reveals the fear of God but also the love that his parents had for the Church and her Saints.

An important role in triggering his good spiritual path was the person of his mother, who was a woman with faith and love for God and His Church. Theodora wanted her children to have God in them and so she guided them in prayer and regular church attendance. This God-fearing woman was originally from Asia Minor, from Mount Olympus in Bithynia. On this mountain in the Byzantine years was born and flourished an entire monastic state similar to the spiritual height of Thebes in Egypt and the monastic state of Mount Athos, which gave the Church many saints, ascetics and martyrs. In the heyday of Iconoclasm, monasteries there were a beacon and stronghold of orthodoxy and orthopraxy. This spirituality influenced the people of the area and reached the time of his mother Theodora. Thus, when during the catastrophe in Asia Minor and they experienced the uprooting from their homeland and lost their material wealth, they managed to keep within themselves the spiritual property they knew.

What the Holy Father John Kalaides Taught His Spiritual Children About Commemorating the Dead

By Miltiades Tsesmetzis, teacher

Great was the importance that the Holy Father John Kalaides (1925-2009) gave to the struggle we must wage on behalf of the reposed.

He told us that we must give their names to the priests to be read by them, and by doing this we help their souls.

He would say that offering kolyva on their behalf was the best thing we could do and that souls find rest by these, especially on the Saturday of Souls.

He would say that even Saint Raphael asked certain people to make kolyva on his behalf for his feast.

Presbytera Polyxeni, Wife of the Charismatic Greek Orthodox Priest John Kalaides, Has Reposed

 

 

By Miltiades Tsesmetzes (Educator)

The late Presbytera Polyxeni was born in 1935, in Promachonas of Serres, Greece. In 1955 she married the holy Father John Kalaides (1925-2009). During their married life they had four children - Theodora, Christos, Sophia and Philip. Her life was completely identical with the difficult and uphill road that the holy Father chose to walk in his life! Although "closed off" and timid as a character, she agreed to open her house widely to the thousands of pilgrims who fled there with longing and hope to the respected Elder!

Fr. John Kalaides and Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene

Fr. John Kalaides (1925-2009), known by many as Papa-John, reposed on the 4th of August of 2009 in Neohori, Serres. He was a Holy Elder of the people of Serres and for his simplicity was known as a Papa-Nicholas Planas of our times. Papa-John was also the founder of the Church of Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene in Neohori, Serres (see here for video of feast on Bright Tuesday).

He helped thousands of Christians who fled to him for help with their various problems. With prayers to his beloved Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene countless and great miracles took place. With his charismatic gifts of foreknowledge and clairvoyance given by God, he led many souls on the path of repentance, confession and salvation.

The first video above is of Papa-John serving the Supplication Service to Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene on their Bright Tuesday feast in March of 2001. The videos which follow below are a lecture he gave in Mytilene in June of 2001 to pilgrims of Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Monastery, the Church of the Archangel Michael Mandamadou, Saint Theraponta, and other places.