The monastery of St. John the Theologian located in Souroti of Thessaloniki, where the tomb of St. Paisios is located, has been flocking since yesterday as faithful as it marks 30 years since his death.
Several of the faithful have been at the monastery since last night as every year on July 11 and 12 the Assumption of St. Paisios is celebrated.
@ekklisiaonline Ουρες για τον Αγιο Παισιο#now
His classification as a saint of the Orthodox Church was granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 13 January 2015, while the Orthodox Church celebrates his memory on 12 July the day of his passing.
@ekklisiaonline Λυγιζουν στον ταφο του Αγιου Παισιου#agiospaisios
Ascetic and humble, St. Paisios was best known for his comforting advice, but also for the profound, or difficult, interpretation of his teachings. That is why thousands of people, from Greece and abroad, rushed to his simple cell in the forest of Panagouda on Mount Athos to see him in person.
@ekklisiaonline Χιλιαδες στη γιορτη του Αγιου Παισιου#fyp
His fame spread by word of mouth and flared up like a fire burning out of control for that monk of Mount Athos who performed miracles and had such a sweet, such an unusual word, such an unusual charisma.
His life
Aresenios Eznepidis. This was the secular name of Saint Paisios, who was born in Farasa, of Cappadocia in Asia Minor on July 25, 1924. He was the child of a large family, as his father, (who was also the mayor of Farasa) Prodromos and his mother Eulabia, had 8 more children. There, in Farasa, in August 1924, shortly before the population exchange was completed, the priest of his parish, Arsenios, baptized him, insisting on giving him his own name “to leave a monk on his foot”, as he had said. Arsenios would be recognized as a saint in 1988.
From Cappadocia with the refugee caravans, the Eznepidis family arrived in Piraeus in September 1924. From there to Corfu, Igoumenitsa and finally to Konitsa, where Arsenios would finish school – the primary school – and work as a carpenter, until he joined the army and served as a radio operator in 1948.
After his discharge from the army in 1949, Arsenios went to Agios Oros. He had decided to become a monk and his acquaintance there with Father Cyril of the Koutloumousiou Monastery was a catalyst. He later joined the Monastery of Esfigmenos and became a monk under the name of Averkios, and in 1954 he joined the Monastery of Filotheos, where he faithfully followed the elder Simeon. With him he formed his monastic character and received the name Paisios.
In 1958 he left Mount Athos for the Holy Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Stomio Konitsis. In the area where he grew up, he remained for four years, and left behind him a great pastoral and charitable work, which was highly appreciated by the people of Konitsa. After a short break – during which he went to Mount Sinai – he returned to Mount Athos in 1964. Two years later, he would undergo partial lung removal and, in 1979, he would settle in the skete of Panaguda.
In 1979 he would be transferred to the monastery in Panaugava, where he would be placed in the monastery in 1979.
With his reputation growing from the faithful who visited him for his advice, in 1993, the elder Paisios was diagnosed with colon cancer. These were years when doctors advised him to avoid a hard ascetic life and manual labor, and to start taking medication instead of patiently enduring the terrible pain and bleeding. He stubbornly refused even to be hospitalized and said that “everything would be settled with the soil”. And, when the cancer became metastatic, he considered it a fulfillment of his request to God and beneficial to his spiritual health.
In June ’94 when he developed metastases in his lungs and liver, his doctors announced that he would not live for more than three weeks. He decided to return to the monastery and take no medication, or painkillers. On the morning of July 12, the scientists’ “prophecy” would come true. St. Paisios would breathe his last. He was buried in the Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Souroti – Vasilika, Thessaloniki.
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