Yet, He is still a friend and He shouts it out, "You're my friends, don't you understand that? I don't hold hell in my hands. I am not threatening you. I want you to enjoy life together with me. He is joy, He is life, He is light. He is the ultimate desire, He is everything. Everything beautiful is in Christ.
Somebody who is Christ's must love Christ, and when he loves Christ he is delivered from the Devil, from hell and from death. The life of the parents is the only thing that makes good children. They should truly love their children. And the children will share this love! For the bad attitude of the children, says father Porphyrios, the ones who are usually responsible for it are their parents themselves.
Then their children become reactive and insecure not only to their home, but to the society as well. Books Wounded by Love: Limni , ISBN , 9 th reprinting.
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The Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Savior: A Spiritual Child Remembers. Limni , ISBN In 1 list s. Biography Picture gallery List s. Basil, who advised, "We write all these things so that you can taste the fruits of repentance. We do not consider the time it takes, but we take note of the manner of repentance. He took this advice to heart and put it into practice.
Even in his ripe old age he reminded young father confessors of this advice. He would receive large numbers of the faithful for confession every day. On many occasions he would hear confession for hours without a break. His reputation as a spiritual father, knower of souls, and sure guide, quickly spread throughout the neighboring area. This meant that many people flocked to his confessional at the Holy Monastery of Lefkon close to Avlona, Evia. Sometimes whole days and nights would pass by with no let-up and no rest, as he fulfilled this godly work, this sacrament.
He would help those who came to him with his gift of discernment, guiding them to self-knowledge, truthful confession and the life in Christ. With this same gift he uncovered snares of the devil, saving souls from his evil traps and devices. Archimandrite In he was awarded the office of Archimandrite from the Metropolitan of Karystia, "in honor of the service that you have given to the Church as a Spiritual Father until now, and for the virtuous hopes our Holy Church cherishes for you" protocol no. The hopes of whom, by the grace of God, were realized.
Priest, for a short time at the parish of Tsakayi, Evia and to the Monastery of St. Some of the older villagers cherish fond memories of his presence there to this day. He had left the Holy Monastery of St. Charalambos because it had been turned into a convent. So, around we find him living in the ruined and abandoned Holy Monastery of St. In the desert of the city When the turmoil of the Second World War approached Greece, the Lord enlisted His obedient servant, Porphyrios, assigning him to a new post, closer to his embattled people.
On the 12th of October he was given the duty of temporary priest to the Chapel of St. He himself requested the position out of the compassionate love he had for his fellows who were suffering. He wanted to be near them during the most difficult times in their lives, when illness, pain and the shadow of death showed the hopelessness of all other hope except for hope in Christ. There were other applicants with excellent credentials who were also interested in the post, but the Lord enlightened the director of the Polyclinic. Humble and charming, Porphyrios, who was uneducated according to the standards of the world but wise according to God, was chosen.
The person who made this choice later expressed his amazement and joy in finding a true priest saying, "I found a perfect father, just like Christ wants. He served the Polyclinic as its employed chaplain, for thirty whole years and then in order to be of service to his spiritual children who sought him there, voluntarily, for a further three years. Here as well as the role of chaplain, which he carried out with complete love and devotion, celebrating the services with wonderful devotion; confessing, admonishing, healing souls and many times bodily ailments too, he also acted as spiritual father to as many of those that came to him.
It was not enough to support himself, his parents and the few other close relatives who relied on him. He had to work for a living. He organized in succession, a poultry farm and then a weaving-shop. In his zeal for services to be celebrated in the most uplifting manner, he applied himself to the composition of aromatic substances which could then be used in the preparation of the incense used in divine worship.
He combined charcoal with aromatic essences, now censing the church with his own slow-burning charcoal that gave off a sweet fragrance of spirituality. He never, it seems, revealed the details of this discovery. From he leased the small monastery of St.
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Nicholas, Kallisia, which belongs to the Holy Monastery of Pendeli. He systematically cultivated the land around it, putting in a lot of hard work. It was here that wanted to establish the convent which he eventually built elsewhere. He improved the wells, built an irrigation system, planted trees, and tilled the soil with a digging machine that he worked himself.
All this together with duty, twenty-four hours a day, as chaplain and confessor. He valued work highly and would allow himself no rest. He learnt from experience the words of abba Isaac the Syrian, "God and his angels find joy in necessity; the devil and his workers find joy in idleness. Departure from the Polyclinic On the 16th February , having completed thirty-five years of service as a priest, he received a small pension from the Hellenic Clerical Insurance Fund and left his duties at the Polyclinic.
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In essence, however, he remained until his replacement arrived. Even after that he continued to visit the Polyclinic to meet his great number of spiritual children. Finally, around , he minimized his visits to the Polyclinic and instead received his spiritual children at St. My strength is made perfect in weakness Elder Porphyrios, in addition to the illness that forced him to leave Mt.
Athos, and that kept his left side especially sensitive, suffered with many other ailments, at various times. Towards the end of his service at the Polyclinic he became ill with kidney trouble. However, he was operated on only when his sickness was in its advanced stages. This was because he worked tirelessly despite his illness. He had become used to being obedient "unto death.
This delay resulted in him slipping into a coma. The doctors told his relatives to prepare for his funeral. However, by divine will, and despite all medical expectations, the Elder returned to earthly life to continue his service to the members of the Church. Some time before that, he had fractured his leg.
Related to which is a miraculous instance of St. In addition to this his hernia, from which he suffered until his death, worsened. On the 20th August , while at St. Nicholas, Kallisia, he had a heart attack myocardial stroke. He was rushed to the "Hygeia" hospital, where he remained for twenty days. When he left the infirmary he continued his convalescence in Athens in the homes of some of his spiritual children. This was for three reasons. Nicholas, Kallisia, as there was no road and he would have to walk a long way on foot.
Furthermore, his house in Turkovounia did not even have the most basic comforts. Finally, he had to be near to doctors. Later, when he had settled into a temporary shelter in Milesi, the site of the convent he founded, he had an operation on his left eye. The doctor made a mistake, destroying the sight in that eye. After a few years the Elder became completely blind. The Elder was particularly sensitive to medication, and especially to cortisone. The result of this injection was continuous stomach-haemorraghing which returned every three months or so.
He sustained himself with a few spoonfuls of milk and water each day. This resulted in him becoming so physically exhausted that he reached the point where he could not even sit up straight. He received twelve blood transfusions, all of them in his accommodation at Milesi. From that time on, his physical health was terribly compromised. However, he continued, his ministry as a spiritual father as much as he could, all the time confessing for shorter periods and often suffering from various other health problems and in the most frightful pain.
Indeed, he steadily lost his sight until in he became completely blind. He steadily decreased the words of advice he gave to people, and increased the prayers he said to God for them. He silently prayed with great love and humility for all those who sought his prayer and help from God. With spiritual joy he saw divine grace acting upon them. Thus, Elder Porphyrios became a clear example of St.
Paul the Apostle words, "My strength is made perfect in weakness. He had vowed to God that he would not abandon these women when he left the world because they had been faithful helpers of his for many years. As time went on it would be possible for other women who wanted to devote themselves to the Lord to settle down there.
His first thought was to build the Convent at the place in Kallisia, Pendeli, which he had leased in from the Holy Monastery of Pendeli. He tried to persuade the owners many times either to donate or sell him the land required. It was to no avail. It now seemed that the Lord, the wise regulator and provider of all, destined another place for this particular undertaking. So the Elder turned his sights to another area in his search for real estate. In the meantime, however, with the co-operation of his spiritual children, he put together the legal charter for the foundation of the Convent and submitted it to the proper church authorities.
Since he had not yet chosen the specific place where his convent would be built, he identified Turkovounia in Athens as the place where it would be founded. Here he had a humble little stone house, which, without even the basic comforts, had been his impoverished abode since Elder Porphyrios did not do anything without the blessing of the Church. Thus, in this instance he sought and received the canonical approval both of His Eminence the Archbishop of Athens and of the Holy Synod. Although the relevant procedures had started in , it was only in , after overcoming much procedural bureaucracy and other difficulties, that he was privileged enough to see the "Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Savior" recognized by a Presidential decree and published in the governmental gazette.
With extreme care and great zeal, he searched tirelessly for a site which would have the most advantages. When his strength had moderately recovered after the stroke and when he felt he could, he continued the intense search for the place he wanted. He spared no effort. He traveled around the whole of Attica, Evia and Viotia in the cars of various spiritual children of his. He looked into the possibility of building his convent on Crete or some other island. He worked unbelievably hard. He inquired about hundreds of properties and visited most of them. He consulted many people. He traveled for thousands of kilometers.
He made countless calculations. He weighed up all the factors; and finally he selected and purchased some property on the site of Hagia Sotira, Milesi by Malakasa, Attica, near Oropos.
Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kapsokalivite - OrthodoxWiki
Early in he took up residence on this property at Milesi, which had been bought for the construction of a convent. For more than a year at the start, he lived in a mobile home under very difficult conditions, especially in winter. Afterwards he settled into a small and shabby house in which he suffered all the hardship of three-months of continuous stomach-haemorraghing and where he also received numerous blood transfusions.
The blood was donated with much love by his spiritual children. The construction work, which the Elder followed closely, also began in He paid for the work from savings that he, his friends and his relatives had made over the years with this aim in mind.
He was also helped by various spiritual children. The building of the Church of the Transfiguration His great love for his fellow man was centered upon guiding them to the joy of transfiguration according to Christ. He wanted to guide us to the state in which he lived, according to which, "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
This is why he also called his Convent the "Transfiguration" and why he wanted the church to be dedicated to the Transfiguration. Finally, through his prayers, he influenced his fellow workers in this venture and succeeded in his aim. After much consultation and hard work on the part of the Elder, a simple, pleasing and perfect design was arrived at.
In the meantime, through the canonical intervention of His Eminence the Archbishop of Athens, the local Metropolitan whose seat falls within the Athenian Archdiocese , gave permission for the church to be built within his jurisdiction, at Milesi. The laying of the foundations took place at midnight between the 25th and the 26th February, during an all night vigil in honor of St.
Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza, the Wonderworker. Elder Porphyrios, sick and unable to climb the eleven meters down to the ground where the cornerstone was to be laid, with great emotion, offered his cross for the cornerstone. From his bed he prayed, using these words: O Cross of Christ, save us by Your strength. Remember, O Lord, Your humble servant Porphyrios and his companions The work of building the Church out of re-enforced concrete began immediately.
He was able to see with his spiritual eyes - for he had lost his natural sight many years before -, the church reaching the final stages of that phase of its construction. That is to say, at the base of the central dome. There was no other subject that interested him more than the Holy Mountain, and especially Kavsokalyvia.
For many years he had a hut there, in the name of a disciple of his who he visited on occasion. When he heard in that the last resident of St. Athanasios, to whom it belonged and asked that it be given to him. It was at St. He had always wanted to return, to keep the vow made at his tonsure some sixty years earlier, to remain in his monastery until his last breath. He was now getting ready for his final journey. The hut was given to him according to the customs of Mt. Elder Porphyrios settled different disciples of his there in succession.
In the summer of there were five. This is the number, that he had mentioned to a spiritual child of his some three years before as the total that indicated the year of his death. Return to his Repentance During the last two years of his earthly life he would frequently talk about his preparation for his defense before the dread judgment seat of God.
He gave strict orders that if he should die here, his body should be transported without fanfare and buried at Kavsokalyvia. In the end, he decided to go there whilst he was still alive. He spoke about a certain story in the Sayings of the Fathers:. A certain elder, who had prepared his grave when he felt his end was near, said to his disciple, "My son, the rocks are slippery and steep and you will endanger your life if you alone take me to my grave.
Come, let us go now that I am alive. On the eve of the Feast of the Holy Trinity, , having gone to Athens to confess to his very old and sickly spiritual father, he received absolution and left for his hut on Mt. He settled in and waited for the end, prepared to give a good defense before God. Then, when they had dug a deep grave for him according to his instructions, he dictated a farewell letter of advice and forgiveness to all his spiritual children through a spiritual child of his.
This letter, dated June 4 Old Calendar and June 17 New Calendar , was found amongst the monastic clothes that were laid out for his funeral on the day of his death. It is published in full on pages of this book and is just one more proof of his boundless humility. Athos with the hidden intention of never returning here again.
He had spoken to enough of his spiritual children in such a way that they knew they were seeing him for the last time. To others he just hinted. It was only after his death that they realized what he meant. Naturally, to those who would not be able to stand the news of his departure, he told them that he would be coming back. He said so many things about his death, either clearly or in a cryptic way, so much so, that only the certainty of those around him that he would survive like all the other times a hope born of desire , can possibly explain the suddenness of the announcement of his death.
Maybe he himself hesitated like St. Paul the Apostle, who wrote to the Phillipians, "For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to part and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. His spiritual children in Athens were constantly calling upon him and he was twice forced to return to the Convent against his will.
Here, he gave consolation to all those who needed it.
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On each occasion he stayed only for a few days, "that our rejoicing for him would be more abundant in Jesus Christ by his coming to us. He would then hurry back to Mt. Athos as quickly as possible. He ardently desired to die there and to be quietly buried in the midst of prayer and repentance.
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He was used to being obedient and submitting to others. Therefore he told one of his monks. He made him worthy of having a blessed end in extreme humbleness and obscurity. He was surrounded only by his disciples on Mt. Athos who prayed with him. On the last night of his earthly life he went to confession and prayed noetically. His disciples read the Fiftieth and other psalms and the service for the dying.
They said the short prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me," until they had completed the rule of a great schema monk. With great love his disciples offered him what he needed, a little bodily and lot of spiritual comfort. For a long time they could hear his holy lips whispering the last words that came from his venerable mouth.
These were the same words Christ prayed on the eve of his crucifixion "that we may be one. After this they heard him repeat only one word. John, "Come" "Yes, come, Lord Jesus". The Lord, his sweet Jesus came. The saintly soul of Elder Porphyrios left his body at 4: His venerable body, dressed in the monastic manner, was placed in the main church of Kavsokalyvia.
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