Acquire the Love of Paul and You’ll Have a Perfect Crown

(Saint John Chrysostom: In Praise of the Holy Apostle Paul, III)

Demonstrating the power of human will and the fact that we can fly even to the heavens themselves, leaving the angels and archangels and the other powers, Saint Paul urges believers to become imitators of Christ, sometimes through him (“Become imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”) and sometimes without him (“Therefore become imitators of God, like beloved children.”).

Then, in order to show that nothing befits this imitation so much as living for the common good and looking out for what is useful for each other he adds: “Behave with love”. This is why, when he said “Become imitators of me”, he immediately speaks of love, demonstrating that it is principally this virtue that brings people closer to God, because all the other virtues are certainly inferior to it and all revolve around the human person: the struggle against desire, the war against gluttony, the fight against avarice, the battle against anger. This is why Christ says: “Pray for those who bother you, so that you may be like your Father Who is in heaven”.

So because Paul knew that this was the most important of the virtues, he applied it with great care. Nobody loved their enemies as he did; nobody did so much good to those who envied them; nobody suffered so much for those who had grieved them. He didn’t look at what they were suffering, he saw them as human beings and the more furious they became, the more he forgave their rage. And in the same way as parents treat a child in a tantrum (because the more a child speaks badly and lashes out, the more the parents feel sorry for it), so Paul, thinking about the illness of those who were acting in this way towards him, was stimulated towards ever greater care.

Selected Miracles of St Haralambos the Blessed Hieromartyr

A modern miracle took place in the small Peloponnesian town of Filiatra in 1943, during the dark days of the occupation of Greece by the Germans. This miracle has moved and continues to move, to this today, not only the people of Filiatra but also the people of all Greece.

From the German Headquarters in Tripoli, orders were issued to Officer Kondau, in charge in Filiatra, to burn the town, because of a sabotage that the rebels had instigated. The Commander was ordered to kill a certain number of notable Filiatrians, to take as prisoners the 1,500 other citizens, and to send them to Germany, after which it is was obvious they would never return.

Officer Kondau, feeling no pity, in turn, gave the orders to his soldiers to follow through with implementing the destruction, on the following day at 6:00 in the morning.

In Tripoli, the priest, Archimandrite Theodore Kotsakis, who was originally from Filiatra, learned of this plan. Grief and worry overcame everyone; no one knew what to do to save Filiatra and its people. So, the priest Theodore found someone who knew German, and together they went to the house of the German Officer in Tripoli. But while they waited outside his office, loud voices, cursing and a great upheaval were heard. A Greek woman pulled on the priest’s cassock, urging him to leave, so that they might not be killed there, right on the spot!

Thereby, upon leaving, the Priest notified all the people from Filiatra who were living in Tripoli, to pray that night to Saint Haralambos, who was Patron Saint of Filiatra, asking him to intercede for the town and its people. Then the Priest Theodore closed himself in his room and prayed with much pain and sorrow. And the citizens of Filiatra did the same, as they had caught wind of something going on, themselves.

Saint Athanasios the Athonite

According to his biography, St Athanasios hailed from the east, from Trapezounta. After concluding his education- as a teacher of literature- while still very young he was touched by the Divine Grace. He forsaken the world and espoused monasticism under the guidance of his uncle (St Michael Maelinos).

It is said that when the young generals who later played a crucial role in the Byzantine Empire, Nikiforos and Leon, visited St Michael to confess, he guided them to the place where St Athanasios –then thirty years old- was staying and told them that he wanted to show them a ‘treasure’. After meeting and talking with Athanasios, the two men were truly amazed and concurred that indeed he was ‘a great treasure’. They were then commanded to ‘reveal all their thoughts to this very monk for ever’. Until the end of their lives, these two great men continued to have St Athanasios as their spiritual guide. Nikiforos was so keen to be with him that they promised each other to live together as monks for ever.

Nikiforos never managed to keep his part of the promise. Being a general was called to free Crete from the pirates. Then he became king against his will and was later murdered. However, he never stopped looking after the monastery of Great Lavra, established by St Athanasios.

St Athanasios came to Mount Athos from Bythinia. When he reached Karyes, which was the centre of monasticism at the time, he never revealed who he was, but pretended to be an illiterate peasant. His elder had tried several times to teach him to read to assist him with his spiritual regime. He, however, was pretending to be incapable of learning.

Saint Nektarios: The Wonderworker of Pentapolis

Our Holy Father Nektarios was born on 1 October 1846 at Selymbria in Thrace. His parents, Dimos and Maria Kephalas, were pious Christians but not rich in this world’s goods. Their son was baptized Anastasios and, from infancy, showed great piety and love for study. When his mother taught him Psalm 50, he liked to repeat the verse: I shall teach thy ways unto the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee. After finishing elementary school, he was sent by his parents to Constantinople to continue his education, at the same time as working in a shop. The boy did not become entangled in worldly cares but fixed his mind entirely upon building up the inner man in the image of Christ by prayer and meditation on the writings of the holy Fathers. When he was twenty, he left Constantinople for a teaching post on the island of Chios. The young people and villagers where he taught were encouraged to live in piety and virtue by his words and above all by the example of his ascetic, prayerful life. 

On November 7, 1876, he became a monk in the famous Monastery of Nea Moni, for he had long desired to embrace the Aesthetic life. Seeking only those things which are above, he was beloved by all the brethren as the very pattern of gentleness and obedience and was ordained deacon after one year. Thanks to the generosity of a pious islander and to the protection of Patriarch Sophronius of Alexandria, he was able to complete his studies in Athens and to obtain the diploma of the Faculty of Theology. In 1885, he arrived in Alexandria where he was soon ordained a priest, then consecrated Metropolitan of Pentapolis (an ancient diocese in Cyrenaica, in what is now Libya). He was appointed preacher and secretary to the Patriarch, whose representative he became in Cairo, where he had charge of the Church of Saint Nicholas.

Abbess Gabrielia: Her Life and Teachings

Gerontissa (Abbess) Gabrielia was born in Constantinople a hundred years ago on October 2/15, 1897. She grew up in the city until her family moved to Thessaloniki in 1923. She went to England in 1938 and stayed there throughout the Second World War. She trained as a chiropodist and physiotherapist. In 1945 she returned to Greece where she worked with the Friends Refugee Mission and the American Farm School in Thessalonika in early post-war years. Later she opened her own therapy office in Athens until 1954. In March of that year her mother died and the office was closed. Sister Lila left Greece and traveled overland to India where she worked with the poorest of the poor, even the lepers, for five years.

It was not until 1959 that she went to the Monastery of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun. When she arrived she asked Fr. Theodosius the chaplain for a rule of prayer. Fr. Theodosius was somewhat surprised to find that she could read even ancient Byzantine Greek. Fr. Theodosius said, “The great elders that we hear about no longer exist. I certainly am not one. You came here to save your soul. If I start giving you rules, you will lose you soul and I will as well. But here is Fr. John. He will be your elder.” So for her first year in the monastery he set her to reading only the Gospels and St. John Climacus (it should be noted that at that time the Ladder had not been published in modern Greek).

She was three years in Bethany. In April, 1962, word came that Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople sought to send an Orthodox monastic to Taize in France. Sister Gabrielia went by way of Taize (she spoke fluent French from childhood) to America.

In 1963 she was back in Greece. The Gerontissa was tonsured to the Small Schema by Abbot Amphilochios (Makris) on Patmos in the Cave of St. Anthony under the Monastery of Evangelismos just before she and the nun Tomasina left again for India. Elder Amphilochios was enthusiastic at the idea a nun who would be open to the an active outreach in the world. In India she was for three year in Nani Tal in Uttar Pradesh where Fr. Lazarus Moore was the priest and where he consulted the Gerontissa in his translations of the Psalter and the Fathers. Between 1967 and 1977 the Gerontissa traveled in the Mission field of East Africa, in Europe including visiting old friends and spiritual fathers Lev Gillet and Sophrony of Essex, again to America, and briefly in Sinai where Archbishop Damianos was attempting to reintroduce monasticism for women.

Sermon on the Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas: The Second Sunday of Great Lent

Today, the second Sunday of the Great Fast, the Orthodox Church worldwide celebrates the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, fourteenth-century Archbishop of Thessaloniki and one of the greatest Fathers of the Orthodox Church.

Until this century, because of the influence of the West—the Jesuits in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Russia and the Lutherans who were appointed as the Ministers of Religion under the first King of Greece, a German Lutheran, placed in power in Greece after its liberation from the Turkish Yoke at the beginning of the nineteenth century—, St. Gregory Palamas was a virtual mystery to Orthodox theologians. This man, whom we hymn as "ho phoster tes Orthodoxias" (the "Enlightener of Orthodoxy") and "to sterigma tes Ekklesias" (the "Pillar of the Church"), taught and lived our Faith in a purity which, except in the hidden confines of monasteries and in the hearts of the simple people—who could not articulate what they knew of Orthodoxy—, was lost to the neo-Papism of Patriarchalism, Western notions of "officialdom," and to nationalism and ethnicity, which are nothing more than a return to heathenism.

Even the life of this great Saint is obscured by modern Western ideas. One of the few commentaries on his life, in a book dedicated to the Pillars of Orthodoxy, refers to him as a member of the "Palamas" family, as though this great Saint were remembered for the nobility of his parents, who were, indeed, members of the Imperial Byzantine Court. Many names at the time, of course, were not like family names as we know them today, and the name "Palamas" was an honorific name derived, not from St. Gregory’s bloodline, but from the Greek word for "clapping," thus meaning that the Saint’s family was lauded and honoured. And so, this worldly honour was transformed by St. Gregory into spiritual honour, which we commemorate when we refer to him as "Palamas," one applauded for his spiritual stature. Nor was St. Gregory Palamas influenced by the Bogomils, as the theologian Father John Meyendorff so wrongly taught; neither did he teach an innovative theology, as many modern Orthodox theologians teach. Rather, he codified and wrote about the deep, mystical theology of the Orthodox Church which is, indeed, a teaching passed down through the Fathers, both in writing and by word of mouth, from the time of the Apostles.

Why the Apostles Peter and Paul Are Called The "Chief Apostles"

As the word of God testifies, the Apostles occupy a special place in the Church—Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4:1). Vested with equal power from above and with equal authority to absolve sins, all the Apostles will sit on the twelve thrones next to the Son of Man (cf. Mt. 19:28).

Although certain Apostles are distinguished in Scripture and tradition, for example, Peter, Paul, John, James, and others, none of them were chief, or even superior in honor to the rest.

But because in the Acts of the Apostles the labors of the Apostles Peter and Paul are the most told, the Church and the holy fathers, while revering the name of each of the Apostles, call these two Apostles chief.

Calling these two Apostles chief in rank and labors, the Church impresses upon us that its head is Jesus Christ alone, and all the Apostles are His servants (cf. Col. 1:18).

Saint Theodore the Great Martyr and the Miracle of the Boiled Wheat

This holy, glorious Martyr of Christ came from Amasia in Pontus and was a Roman legionary at the time of Maximian’s great persecution (c. 303). He had been a Christian since childhood but kept his faith secret, not out of cowardice but because he had not yet received a sign from God to present himself for martyrdom. While his cohort was stationed near the town of Euchaïta (Helenopontus), he learned that the people of the district lived in terror of a dreadful dragon, which lurked in the surrounding forest. He realized that here was the quest in which God would show him whether the time had come to offer himself for martyrdom. Going deep into the woods, he came upon an abandoned village whose only remaining occupant, a Christian princess named Eusebia, told him where the monster had its lair. He set off to find it, arming himself with the sign of the Cross, and when he confronted the roaring, fire-spitting beast, he thrust his spear through its head and killed it.

Convinced that now, by God’s grace, he would be able to vanquish the spiritual dragon, the Devil, just as he had felled the visible fiend, Saint Theodore returned to the camp, ready to confess his faith. When the commander of his cohort ordered a sacrifice to the gods of the Empire, Theodore remained in his tent. “I am a Christian,” he told the squad who came to look for him. “I adore only Christ. He is the King whom I serve, and to Him only am I willing to offer sacrifice!” After plying him with crafty questions, they left him in order to interrogate other Christian soldiers. Inflamed with divine zeal, Theodore encouraged his fellow Christians to show themselves worthy of Christ, who had chosen them to be soldiers in His army on high.

That night he went to the pagan temple and reduced the altar of Rhea, the mother of the gods, to ashes. He was caught in the act by a verger and brought unresisting to the governor Publius. There was an uproar in Euchaïta when the deed was known; but Theodore replied calmly to the governor’s questions, showing the absurdity of regarding as a deity a lifeless piece of wood which had been reduced to ashes in a few moments. Threatened with dire torments, the Saint responded, “Your threats do not frighten me because, amid torments, the power of Christ will be joy and gladness to me.” Grinding his teeth in rage, the governor had him thrown into a gloomy dungeon.

The Life of Saint Anthony the Great

Our venerable and God-bearing Father Saint Anthony the Great was born into a wealthy family in upper Egypt about 254 AD. Also known as Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, and Anthony the Anchorite, he was a leader among the Desert Fathers, who were Christian monks in the Egyptian desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The Orthodox Church celebrates his feast on January 17.

Life of St. Anthony

Most of what we know about the life of St Anthony is in the Greek vita (Life of Antony) by Athanasius, circulated in Latin. Several surviving homilies and epistles of varying authenticity provide scant autobiographical detail.

Anthony was born near Herakleopolis Magna in Upper Egypt in 251 to wealthy parents. When he was eighteen years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. In 285, he decided to follow the words of Jesus who had said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21). Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and needy, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins, a sort of proto-nunnery at the time.

The moniker "Father of Monasticism" is misleading, as Christian monasticism was already being practiced in the deserts of Egypt. Ascetics commonly retired to isolated locations on the outskirts of cities. Anthony is notable for being one of the first ascetics to attempt living in the desert proper, completely cut off from civilization. His anchoritic (isolated) lifestyle was remarkably harsher than his predecessors. By the 2nd century there were also famous Christian ascetics, such as Saint Thecla. Saint Anthony decided to follow this tradition and headed out into the alkaline desert region called the Nitra in Latin (Wadi El Natrun today), about 95 km west of Alexandria, some of the most rugged terrain of the Western Desert.

The Life of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker

The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nicholas, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

So reads the troparion of St Nicholas, hierarch of the Church of Myra in Lycia (now Demra in Turkey), known as 'wonderworker' and 'father' throughout the Christian world. He is beloved in the Orthodox Church, and indeed far beyond, for his kindness, almsgiving and aid, meted out both during his earthly life and after. As one of the multitude of English lives of the saint joyously proclaims, 'he is one of the best known and best loved saints of all time.'

And in another: 'The name of the great saint of God, the hierarch and wonderworker Nicholas, a speedy helper and suppliant for all hastening to him, is famed in every corner of the earth, in many lands and among many peoples. In Russia there are a multitude of cathedrals, monasteries and churches consecrated in his name. There is, perhaps, not a single city without a church dedicated to his honour.'

Childhood and Early Life

St Nicholas was born (c. 270) in the the region of Lycia (southern Asia Minor), in the city of Patara. His parents, Theophanes and Nonna, were both pious Christians, and being childless until his arrival, consecrated Nicholas to God at his birth (the name Nicholas meaning 'Conqueror of nations'). His birth considered by both an answer to their prayer, and especially the prayer issued during Nonna's illness, his mother was said to have been healed immediately after giving birth. Nicholas would always remember his parents' love and devotion to God, and in his later years promised to come to the aid of those who remembered them in their prayers.

The Life of Elder Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (1906-1991)

This biographical sketch is from Elder Porphyrios: Testimonies and Experiences, by Klitos Ioannidis. In 2013, after this was written, Elder Porphyrios was glorified as a Saint of the Church. His commemoration is on December 2. A number of books on the Elder's life and teaching are in print; especially recommended is Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios, edited by the Sisters of the Holy Convent of Chrysopis.

His Family

Elder Porphyrios was born on the 7th of February 1906, in the village of St. John Karystia, near Aliveri, in the province of Evia. His parents were poor but pious farmers. His father's name was Leonidas Bairaktaris and his mother's was Eleni, the daughter of Antonios Lambrou.

At baptism he was given the name Evangelos. He was the fourth of five children, and the third child of the four that survived. His oldest sister, Vassiliki, passed away when she was a year old. Today, only his youngest sister, who is a nun is still alive.

His father had a monastic calling but obviously did not become a monk. He was, however, the village cantor, and St. Nectarios called upon his services during his journeys through the area, but poverty forced him to emigrate to America to work on the construction of the Panama canal.

Saint Katherine of Alexandria: The Great Martyr

Saint Katherine lived in the third century after Christ. She was born in Alexandria. Her father Constas, a representative of the emperor, and her mother were idolaters. Thus she too was an idolater. Now the small daughter had a great inclination for learning. She studied all the sciences and read the writings of the Greeks and Latins. At the age of 18 she was the most educated daughter of Alexandria. In her demeanor she was a beautiful woman full of grace. With such gifts, physical and intellectual, she was the most sought after bride. Prominent young men proposed to her. But she would say that she did not want to marry, despite all the pressures of her own people.

If someone wants to marry, it is a sin to obstruct him. But if this is a sin once, it is a sin a hundred-fold to obstruct a person, man or woman, who wants to give his or her heart to God. Marriage is silver; virginity is gold. Choose and take. In all the years that I have served the Lord, I never, ever obstructed a person from entering marriage.

But I also supported women and men who wanted to devote themselves to God and to become missionary and monastic persons. God gave freedom; compulsion is prohibited, especially when it comes to these issues.  So they pressured, badly so, Saint Katherine. She did not hate marriage, but as a superior intellect she wanted to be without distraction. And there is not only this marriage, the usual one. Others marry the fatherland, others science, others religion.

The Life of St. Nektarios the Wonderworker

His Childhood Years

Anastasios Kephalas, son of Dimosthenis and Vassiliki, was born on October 1st, 1846, in Eastern Selyvria of Thrace (Now Turkey). He was one of six children. His parents were very poor but pious Christians who brought up their children according to the teachings of our Church. When his mother taught him Psalm 50, he liked to repeat the verse: I shall teach thy ways unto the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee. His early years were spent at the local elementary school in Silivria. Upon completion of his school curriculum there were no schools in the area for him to continue his academic studies and he was too poor to study abroad.  But he did have a thirst for knowledge and a love of God. This love urged him on for he wanted to become a theologian. He wanted to educate himself so that he could love the Lord even more, and as such, serve him better.

Sadened by the state of poverty that his parents were in and urged by his ever-growing love for our Lord Jesus Christ, at the age of fourteen and with his parents’ blessings, Anastasios went to Constantinople to find work for their financial assistance and in hope that he would be able to continue his studies and fullfill his dreams.

The young Anastasios set off then for the seaport where he would board a boat to Contsantinouple. He was faced with a problem, however. Anastasios did not have the money to pay the required fare for the boat. Nevertheless, as the boat for Constantinople was ready to sail Anastasios bravely walked up to the captain and asked to take him along. The captain, however, seeing him so young, said to him jokingly, "Take a walk, my little one, and when you come back I will take you." The boy understood what the captain was actually telling him, and began to walk away sadly. The captain turned on the engines in order to sail.

The Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt by Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Week after week we feel that we are coming closer and closer to the glorious Resurrection of Christ. And it seems to us that we are moving fast, from Sunday to Sunday as it were, to the day when all horrors, all terrors, will have disappeared.

And yet so easily do we forget that before we reach the day of the Resurrection we must, together with Christ, together with His apostles, tread the road of the Crucifixion. 'So we are ascending to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they shall crucify Him, and the third day He will rise’. All we notice is that He will rise. But do we ever think of the way in which the disciples went to Jerusalem, knowing that the Crucifixion was at hand? They were moving in fear.

They were not yet mature enough to be those who would give their lives for the message to be spread. They were moving in fear. When Christ told them that they would go now to Jerusalem, return to the city which had then renounced Christ, put Him into danger of His life, they said to Him, 'Let us not go.' And only one disciple, Thomas, said, 'No. Let us go with Him, and die with Him.'

This disciple is the one whom, foolishly I believe, we call the Doubter: the one who was not prepared to give his trust to God, his faith, his life, his blood, without certainty. But his heart was unreservedly given to Christ. How wonderful to be such a man! But the other disciples would not desert Christ. They walked towards Jerusalem.

Το the Three Hierarchs

In order for us to understand the role and importance which the holy Fathers have within the life of the Orthodox Church, we must examine it under the light of the Divine Economia. But, what to we mean when we speak about “Divine Economia”?

Divine Economia is the entire work of salvation. It is the realization of God’s Will concerning man’s salvation. Man, because of Satan’s envy, was led to disobey the Divine Commandment with the result that sin entered into the world and through sin death ruled. St Gregory the Theologian teaches, that ‘God created man, because He was not satisfied moving within His own vision, but His Love had to be outpoured to other creatures.’ God wanted to raise man from the condition of innocent, ignorance and the lack of experience of good and evil, and lead him into the knowledge and free choice of good. But, the disobedience towards the simple Commandment of God brought upon mankind dramatic consequents.

The direct communion of man and the Grace of God ceased. Man was left to his own powers, deserted in the world of carnal passions, which became his nature’s master and tyrant. Man’s mind was darkened and his conscience became weak, disfigured and became hardened to such extent that he was unable to distinguish the unholy and evil from the holy and good. Man’s will lost its power and became a slave to evil desires. Love was replaced by pride, selfishness and hatred. The truth was replaced by lies; the True God was abandoned and His place was taken by the numerous false gods of idolatry. These were the few fruits of man’s apostasy and departure from God.

To understand the results of sin in man’s life, let us see the following example: As an astronaut distances himself in space from Earth, the less oxygen he has; and without the spacecraft or spacesuit he cannot survive in space, not even for one moment. In a similar manner man cannot be within the true knowledge of God and virtuous life without Christ.

Orthodox Saints and the Ecumenical Movement

For Christians, the criterion of truth is fidelity to Christ and the faith that was “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

The Saints, being wholly united to Christ by the Spirit in his holy Church, in turn become the empirical datum par excellence by which truth is measured. This is why, for Orthodox Christians, the teachings of the Holy Fathers are received as an authority to be followed and believed, far and above whatever opinions any individual or group may have.

I offer this foundational belief as a preface to discussing the issue of relations between the Orthodox Church and the See of Rome, which in light of the forthcoming Apostolic Pilgrimage is a topic generating some discussion in ecclesiastical circles.

Since Vatican II, Rome has developed the ecclesiological notion that our schism is a matter of separated ‘sister churches,’ and that the Orthodox Church ‘lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist.’[1]. Does the Orthodox Church share this understanding of the schism and the status of the Roman Catholic church? To answer that question, we must turn to her Saints and synodal decrees. And when we do, the answer is a rather unambiguous ‘no’.

When we examine the controversies with Rome in the lives of St. Photios the Great and St. Mark of Ephesus (in the ninth and fifteenth centuries respectively), we find clear repudiations of Rome for her heresies—so long as she holds to them—and in the latter case, a rejection of the possibility for union with her for that very reason. In the eyes of the Orthodox Church—who not only canonized these men, but deemed them ‘Pillars of Orthodoxy’—their teaching with respect to Rome was vindicated over against papism, filioquism, and ecumenism. St. Photios’ teaching against the Filioque and papal supremacy was formally affirmed by the Church at the ecumenical Council of Constantinople (A.D. 879–880), and St. Mark was vindicated and affirmed in the Church’s rejection of the false union of Basel-Ferrara-Florence.

Prophesies of Saint Kosmas Aitolos

1) One day this will become Romaiko (Greek) and fortunate is he who will live in that kingdom.
(St. Kosmas would say this in different places in Greece, then under the Turkish yoke, that later on fought and acquired their freedom.)

2) Oh! Blessed mountain, how many souls, women, and children will you save during those difficult years. (This prophecy was said in Siatista (northwestern Greece) and elsewhere where there were mountains. Women and children made them their refuge during the revolution.)

3) Those who will seek refuge up here in these high mountains will be fortunate; they will protect you from many dreadful sufferings. You will hear of but not see the dangers. You will suffer for three hours, or three days (prophesied by the Saint in Siatista).

4) That which is longed for will take place in the third generation. It will be seen by your grandchildren. (This exceedingly important prophecy of the Saint, which nursed the sweetest hope of the enslaved Greek people, received astonishing fulfillment. For the years of the liberation of the Nation are in fact the third generation from the time when the Saint made this prophecy, isasmuch as is known, each generation is reckoned as twenty-five years.)

5) There will come a time when your enemies will even take away from you the ashes from your fire, but do not deny your faith, as others may do.

The Life of Father Seraphim Rose

WHY is the truth, it would seem, revealed to some and not to others? Is there a special organ for receiving revelation from God?

Yes, though usually we close it and do not let it open up: God’s revelation is given to something called a loving heart.

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SERAPHIM Rose (1934-1982) was an American convert to the Orthodox Church, who became both priest and monk, and today is widely regarded as a saint.

Seraphim triumphed over serious personal trials to become a man of profound spiritual convictions and sincere prayer of the heart, and a steady critic of religious, political, and social ‘liberalism’ at a time when their disastrous effects were not as apparent as they are today.

Conversion

Intellectually precocious, the young Eugene was baptized in the Methodist Church when he was fourteen, and later became an atheist, finding an outlet for his religious instincts in Buddhism, and an expression of his worldview in beatnik culture. Emotionally intense, in his college days he entered into a homosexual relationship with a Finnish-born Russian Orthodox.  But even as his friend was moving away from Orthodoxy, so Seraphim became first acquainted with it, and then immersed in it.

He was eventually able to break his bonds, and was received into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1962. As he himself would later write in God’s Revelation to the Human Heart (published in 1988). 

WHEN conversion takes place, the process of revelation occurs in a very simple way — a person is in need, he suffers, and then somehow the other world opens up.