Saint Dionysios and the Bears of Mount Olympus

By Monk Agapios Landos

The Bears On The Mountain

To this day, it is recounted on Mount Olympus, that our holy Father Dionysios at one time was on a certain errand with a donkey. He grew weary and decided to lay down and rest. He fell into a deep sleep, whereupon a bear fell upon his animal and slew it. The Saint awoke to find that his donkey had been devoured by a bear. Consequently, he rebuked the bear. In the denouncement, he prohibited bears from entering upon or inhabiting that side of the mountain. Henceforward, all the bears forsook that area and migrated to the other side of the mountain, never to trespass the invisible barrier set by the Saint's word. Currently, the effects of this phenomenon are still in existence. For one side of the mountain is densely populated with bears, whereas, the other side is completely devoid of their presence.

Saint Dionysios of Olympus Resource Page

St. Dionysios of Olympus (Feast Day - January 23)

Verses

In the flesh you lived as if fleshless father,
And now you delight together with the fleshless intelligences.

 

Saint Dionysios of Olympus (+ 1541)
 
Demonology in the Life of Saint Dionysios of Olympus
 
Saint Dionysios of Olympus and the Monk Who Summoned a Demon
 
Saint Dionysios and the Bears of Mount Olympus
 
2 Miracles of Saint Dionysios of Olympus
 
Saint Dionysios of Olympus and the Child Who Was Lost Alone in the Forest in 1971
 
The Holy Monastery of Saint Dionysios of Mount Olympus
 
The Skulls of the Monastery of Saint Dionysios of Olympus

 

The Holy Cave of Saint Dionysios of Olympus

The Chapel of Saint Solomone With the Sea Turtle Located at the Base of Mount Olympus
 
The Highest Altitude Orthodox Chapel in All of Greece and the Balkans (photos + videos)
 
Synaxis of All Saints of Demetriados
 
Synaxis of All Saints of Thessaliotidos

 

Saint Peter of Atroa (+ 837)

St. Peter of Atroa (Feast Day - September 13 & January 3);
photo shows Mount Olympus in Phrygia, known today as Mount Uludag

Verses

For September 13.

Peter was inclined towards the release from the flesh,
Approaching God as an unbreakable rock.

For January 3.

Peter was seen as another Peter chosen before all others,
Like him working a myriad of signs.

He was born in 773 near Ephesus, the eldest of three children. His given name was Theophylact. At eighteen, he determined to become a monk and joined Paul the Hesychast at his hermitage in Phrygia after being instructed to do so through a vision of the Theotokos. There he took the name Peter. On the day he was ordained several years later in Zygos of Greece, at the door of the church he cured a man possessed of an unclean spirit. This was the beginning of his numerous miracles.

Saint George Limniotes the Confessor of Mount Olympus (+ 716)

St. George Limniotes (Feast Day - August 24)

Verses

The end of George was a common end,
Bearing the sign of an athlete with his cut off nose.

From a young age blessed George loved the monastic life, so he went to pass his life on the Olympus mountains. After undertaking many struggles, he boldly confessed his Orthodox faith and piety during the reign of Leo the Isaurian, who in the year 716 was destroying the holy icons and burning the relics of the Saints.

Synaxarion of Saint Eustratios the Wonderworker

St. Eustratios the Wonderworker (Feast Day - January 9)

Verses

Although the spirit of Eustratios is received in the heavens,

His body on earth gushes forth the grace of miracles.

Our Holy Father Eustratios was born in 751 in Tarsios, a small town in the Optimatian theme (Bithynia) of northwestern Asia Minor. Tarsios was classified as a village and subdivision of the village-city of Bitsiani. His parents, George and Megetho, were pious and lived moderately comfortable lives. Having been reared and educated well by his parents, at the age of twenty he was overcome with divine eros. Therefore he left his parents, and departed for Mount Olympus in Bithynia southeast of Prusa, and settled in the Monastery of Agauros. It was in this Monastery that his maternal uncles Basil and Gregory (also commemorated Jan. 9) shined forth in asceticism and virtue. Eustratios was therefore received by his uncles, and tonsured a monastic by them.