Elder Paisios of Mount Athos Canonized by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

       

Elder Paisios has been canonized on Tuesday (january 15) by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople as he was unanimously accepted by the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church.

As reported by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, he is now Saint Paisios and is added in the Greek Orthodox Church Hagiology. Saint Paisios the Athonite was born Arsenios Eznepidis in July 1924, in Farasa Cappadocia and passed away in July 1994. He was a Greek monk who became widely known for his life and prophecies. His father was called Prodromos and his mother Evlampia.

He had eight siblings. On August 7, 1924, a week before the Greeks of Farasa returned to the homeland, he was baptized by the parish priest, Arsenios, whom the Orthodox Church recognized as a saint. Arsenios insisted and gave him his name “to leave a monk in his place,” as he said.

Five weeks after the boy’s christening, on September 14, 1924, the Eznepidis family, along with other refugees, arrived in Piraeus and then went to Corfu, where they stayed for eighteen months. The family then moved to Igoumenitsa and then to Konitsa where Arsenios finished elementary school and got his diploma with “excellent conduct.” Ever since he was a child, he was writing down the miracles of Saint Arsenios.

      

He had an inclination towards monasticism and wanted to become a monk. Arsenios went to Mount Athos to become a monk in 1949, right after his discharge from the army. He stayed for one night at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Karyes and then slept in the hermitage of Saint Panteleimon, in the cell of the Virgin Mary, where he met father Cyril, abbot of the monastery, and followed him faithfully.

After spending time in various retreats of Mount Athos and Sinai, he moved to Koutloumousio monastery until he became seriously ill and passed away in the summer of 1994. He was buried in the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti, Thessaloniki. Since then, every year on July 11 to July 12, the anniversary of his death, there is a vigil in the Sanctuary Retreat, with thousands of believers attending.

Elder Paisios wrote four books, published by the Holy Monastery Saint John the Theologian: Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian (1991), Elder Hadji-Georgis the Athonite, 1809-1886 (1986), Athonite Fathers and Athonite Matters (1993) and Letters (1994).

  

Elder Paisios became known for a number of controversial political statements and prophecies. These include the prediction that a war with Turkey will lead to a restoration of a Greater Greece that includes Albania, Macedonia and Byzantium (Istanbul), and the mass conversion of Turks from Islam to Orthodox Christianity. Many Greeks have compared Paisios to Nostradamus.

    

Apolytikion in the First Tone
The offspring of Farasa, and the adornment of Athos, and the imitator of the former righteous, equal in honor, O Paisios let us honor O faithful, the vessel full of graces, who hastens speedily to those who cry out: glory to Him Who gave you strength, glory to Him Who crowned you, glory to Him Who grants through you healings for all.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The most-famed ascetic of the Holy Mountain, and the newly-enlightened light of the Church, let us praise him with hymns with all our heart, for he leads the faithful towards a perfect life, filling them with rivers of gifts, therefore we cry out: Hail, O Father Paisios.

Synaxarion
On the this day (July 12th), the memory of our venerable Father Paisios the New, of the Holy Mountain, who reposed in peace in the year 1994.

Verses
Paisios, the tree of Mount Athos,
You were shown to be full of fruit, O Most-venerable one.
On the twelfth, Paisios reposed.

Megalynarion
Rejoice the communicant with the Venerable, the pride of Athos, the adornment of Monastics, Rejoice the new teacher of the Church, O godly-minded Paisios, our boast.