Athonite Fathers and Athonite Matters

252 Pages·2016·8.762 MB·English

by  Saint Paisios of Mount Athos

ATHONITE FATHERS
AND ATHONITE MATTERS
Saint Paisios of Mount Athos
ATHONITE FATHERS
AND ATHONITE MATTERS
Holy Hesychasterion
“Evangelist John the Theologian”
Souroti, Thessaloniki, Greece
Title of the original:
AyiopeiraL HarepEg nai AytopELrcxa
1st edition 1993
Published by the Holy Hesychasterion
“Evangelist John the Theologian”
Souroti, Thessaloniki, Greece
1st edition 1999
3rd edition 2016
© Holy Hesychasterion “Evangelist John the Theologian”
570 06 Vasilika, Thessaloniki, Greece
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans­
mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, me­
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without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
J
CONTENTS
Prologue.......................................................................................11
In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit................................................15
Father Tychon..............................................................................27
Elder Evlogios.............................................................................63
Elder Pachomios.........................................................................66
Father Seraphim (the Anchorite of Athos)...............................69
The Unknown Anchorite...........................................................71
Hieromonk Anthimos, the Fool for Christ.............................73
The Wondrous Father Daniel.....................................................84
Elder Cosmas of the Monastery of Pantokrator......................89
Father Philaretos, the Abbot......................................................93
Elder Peter (Petrakis)..................................................................97
Elder Avgoustinos......................................................................110
Father Georgios the Anchorite.................................................120
Elder Philaretos.........................................................................125
Elder Ephraim the “Wretch”...................................................129
Elder Constantine, the Fool for Christ...................................132
Father Savvas of the Monastery of Esphigmenou................138
Elder Tryphon.............................................................................140
Father Cyril................................................................................147
The Hieromonk who was tormented by the evil one
because of a prideful thought................................152
8
The unprepared clergy who were prevented by God
and did not celebrate the Divine Liturgy..............154
Elder Habakkuk.......................................................................156
The two bumptious monks.......................................................159
The wilful disciple....................................................................160
The devout and obedient disciple............................................162
The wilful and negligent novice monk....................................163
The negligent young monk.......................................................164
The negligent elderly monk......................................................165
An Angel castigates the idiorrhythmic
Monastery of Xeropotamou....................................166
The Brother who was saved without effort
because he did not judge.........................................167
Father Methodios’s and Father Joacheim’s
foreknowledge of death............................................168
The disciple who was not obedient to his Elder
and was saved, because he hoped in God.............170
The chanter who attended a feast with a Brother who
had been dead for six months..................................173
Panaghia anoints a devout young man...................................174
A very faithful and p/n/ofzwo-filled novice
is cured by Christ......................................................175
Illnesses are beneficial and rewarded
in Heaven, when we patiently endure them........176
The ministering monk who complained.................................177
The careless talk of the naive monk who
received corrective punishment from God...........178
Panaghia protects and watches over
the monks in Her Garden like a good Mother........180
9
The Righteous Martyr Damianos cures a young monk.......180
The value of a monk..................................................................182
The power of the monk’s prayer..............................................183
The power of the komboschoini, of the Jesus Prayer..........184
The power of the Jesus Prayer................................................185
The Jesus Prayer with exertion................................................185
The monk’s spiritual misery comes from
worldly convenience...............................................186
Worldly logic brings spiritual ruin...........................................187
Quietude and carefreeness are the most important
prerequisites for the spiritual life..........................187
Monks must be a good example for the laity.........................188
Saint George caters for his feast..............................................189
Saint Spyridon caters for his feast...........................................190
God’s blessing comes when we give a blessing...................192
The providence of the “Sweetly-Kissing” Panaghia
towards the Holy Monastery of Philotheou.........194
The merciless monk who became deluded............................197
The monk who was saved from dreadful delusion..............200
Pleasant events...........................................................................205
Angel of the Eighth Age...........................................................210
The Return to God, from Earth to Heaven............................212
Maps.............................................................................................240
Sketes and Kellia on Mount Athos.........................................244
Geographical places on Mount Athos....................................246
Geographical places and cities in Greece..............................247

Prologue
Continuing our work, with God’s help, on the trans­
lation into English of the books by Saint Paisios
the Athonite (fl994), we now offer our English-
speaking Orthodox friends the third book: “Athonite
Fathers and Athonite Matters'”.
It is, one might say, a small Gerontikon) It presents
the lives or some particular circumstances in the lives
of Athonite Fathers who were vessels of divine Grace
and lived approximately in the period from 1840-1980.
In the conclusion to the book, which is entitled:
“The Return to God, from Earth to Heaven,” the author
offers a distillation of his own experience and God’s
wisdom.
Elder Paisios, as a novice, but also later on in his
monastic life, was blessed in having been able to asso­
ciate with many righteous Fathers, “athletes of Christ,”
in the Garden of the Mother of God (Perivoli of the
Panaghid), or to hear others tell of them. He was deeply
1. A book containing sayings and brief stories of the desert Fathers.
12 Athonite Fathers and Athonite Matters
impressed by their holy simplicity, their unshakeable,
genuine and unadulterated faith; he was moved by their
philotimo2-h\kd struggle; he admired their self-denial
unto death and their devotion to the ascetic ideal; he
tasted and was sweetened by the honey of their virtues;
and, being animated by the same combative spirit, he
imitated their godly achievements.
He later undertook to record as much as his memo­
ry and heart had retained, out of reverence and a sense
of sacred duty towards the holy Fathers, and also out
of love for his fellowmen, because, every day, he was
painfully aware that logic rather than faith prevails in
the spiritual life of people - both laity and monastics.
The lives of the Athonite Fathers, as described in
these pages, help us all to understand how much we
have deviated from the genuine line of thought of the
Fathers of the Church and how we are to return, so as
to find the true meaning of our own lives.
We extend our warmest thanks to all those who
have assisted us and laboured to complete this transla­
tion. May the Good Lord reward their generous-heart­
ed efforts in the way He knows best.
Through the prayers of our Panaghia and our
righteous Athonite Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our
God, have mercy upon us. Amen.
2. See footnote on p. 23.
Saint Paisios of Mount Athos (1924-1994)