Elder Hatziflourentzos Patsias of Milia (+ 1969)

Pappou Hatziflourentzos (Flourentzos Michael Patsias, “Hatzimounas”): The Glory of Milia

By Antonis Antoniou

Elder Hatziflourentzos was born in the village of Milia, in the Famagusta district of Cyprus, in 1901. His faith in and love for God were great. His exceptionally ascetic way of life and prophetic words made him seem like a madman. He never attended school and, for a large part of his life, did not know how to read. At first, he made no effort in the spiritual life and lived an ordinary worldly existence. Then, however, a seemingly insignificant incident became the occasion for his soul to be enlightened and filled with divine longing for our Lord and for every spiritual virtue.

When he was about forty years old, moved by divine zeal, he began cautiously to examine and study the sacred books of the Church. Before long, he had learned to read. He worked as a farmer and livestock breeder, and later took up various other occupations, including that of a mason and a farrier. He married a quiet woman from Milia named Annezu, and together they had six children: five sons and one daughter.

In 1945, he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, from which he received the name Hatzis. After he had married off three of his six children, his divine longing led him first to the Monastery of the Apostle Barnabas near Varosha and later to the Monastery of Stavrovouni, where he wished to become a monk. The abbots of both monasteries, however, refused to receive him because he was married and still had unmarried children.

A Fragment of the Honorable Head of Saint John the Forerunner Returns to Constantinople After 822 Years

On Friday, October 9, 2026, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady in Amiens, France, where he was warmly received by the Bishop of Amiens, Gérard Le Stang. Accompanied by Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Metropolitan Dimitrios of France, Bishop Ambrosios of Sinope, and the Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios, Director of the Patriarchal Private Office, the Ecumenical Patriarch venerated the sacred relic of the head of Saint John the Forerunner, which has been preserved in a special chapel within the cathedral.

During the visit, Bishop Gérard Le Stang presented Patriarch Bartholomew with a fragment of the sacred relic. According to the announcement of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the fragment will be placed for veneration by the faithful at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George in Constantinople, in the Phanar. Thus, a portion of a relic that had been preserved in France since the early thirteenth century is returning to the city from which it was taken during one of the most tragic episodes in its history.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 10

 

The Month of October

Day 10

41. To Brothers and Sisters Who Live Together Without Their Parents

(From the Life of the Holy Martyrs Eulampios and Eulampia)

We often see some of you, young men and maidens, who have lost your parents and live together as orphaned brothers and sisters, without outside help or support. How, then, should you conduct yourselves, you brothers and sisters who have lost your parents and live together? First of all, you should love one another and live in peace and harmony, remembering that peace and harmony form the foundation of family happiness. You should then learn the holy faith and the rules of a pious life. Finally, advancing from strength to strength, you should also strive to excel one another in steadfast faith, firm hope, and ardent love for the Lord. Yes, you should attain this as well, for virtuous emulation leads to perfection.

But how can you attain this? Through imitation of the Saints, for they too can offer you salutary lessons in this regard. Which Saints, you may ask, should we imitate in order to learn this virtuous emulation? For now, at least, learn from the Holy Martyrs Eulampios and Eulampia, a brother and sister by birth. Their emulation in the Lord is remarkable.

The Return of Greece’s Lost Ecclesiastical Treasures: The 1917 Bulgarian Seizures and the Recent Agreement

On 3 October 2026, Greece and Bulgaria formalized an agreement concerning the return to Greece of 48 ecclesiastical treasures removed from religious institutions during the First World War and the transfer to Bulgaria of human remains identified as those of Tsar Samuel (r. 997–1014). The ceremony, held at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki and attended by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, marked a significant moment in the cultural relations of the two neighboring countries. The treasures were physically brought back to Greece, more than a century after their removal in 1917, while the remains attributed to Samuel were transferred to Bulgaria. Yet, beyond the diplomatic symbolism, the agreement raises important historical, archaeological, ecclesiastical, and legal questions. It also brings renewed attention to the wider problem of cultural and religious property removed from Greek institutions during the upheavals of the early twentieth century.

Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the First Priest Ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the first priest ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, has passed away at the age of 88.

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 117 [118]:22)

Father Christos passed away in the early hours of this morning at the University General Hospital in Ioannina, where he had been receiving treatment. His son, Leonidas, announced his repose in a post. The funeral service will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. local time, at the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Alyko. That is where he was born in 1938, and that is where he has returned, as all those who never truly leave eventually return.

He bore a surname inherited from a priestly ancestor several generations back. The ancestor was gone; the name remained, waiting. It took several generations for that name to be filled with meaning once again, and Father Christos was the one who filled it, at the age of fifty-three.

Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 9

 

The Month of October

Day 9

40. To Mothers Who Have Lost Their Children

(From the Life of Venerable Athanasia)

You mothers whom the Lord has ordained to suffer the loss of one or another of your children, we intend to speak with you today about the life of Venerable Athanasia, whose memory the Holy Church commemorates on October 9. From this same life, we hope to offer you consolation in your grief, strengthen your faith in the afterlife, awaken in you confidence in God’s all-good providence for your children who have departed into the heavenly realm, and finally draw you away from hopeless despondency, despair, and anguish. Listen attentively, then, to what is written in the life of this servant of God whom we have mentioned.

First Encomium on the Holy Martyr Pelagia (St. John Chrysostom)

Introduction

This homily on Saint Pelagia of Antioch was delivered by Saint John Chrysostom in Antioch on 8 October 386, during the annual celebration of the martyr’s feast. The date is securely established by the chronological work of Anne-Marie Malingrey and is also given by the Pravoslavnaya Entsiklopediya, which places the homily among Chrysostom’s early panegyrical sermons delivered in Antioch. 

The homily belongs to the earliest period of Chrysostom’s priesthood. He had been ordained a priest in Antioch in 386 by Bishop Flavian, and the sermon is part of the series of panegyrics he delivered in honor of saints particularly venerated by the Antiochene Church. Its occasion was the public festival commemorating Pelagia, a young virgin martyr of Antioch who, according to the tradition known to Chrysostom, chose death rather than expose her virginity to dishonor.

Chrysostom does more than recount Pelagia’s martyrdom. He interprets her death as a victory over both death and the devil, praises the glory of virginity joined to martyrdom, and contrasts the lasting honor of virtue with the fleeting display of wealth. In the final section, his attention turns directly to the congregation: he urges them to leave the festival in good order, sobriety, and reverence, warning them that their conduct is being observed by others, including members of other Christian communities. The homily therefore provides not only a panegyric of Pelagia, but also a vivid picture of the public character of martyr festivals and the pastoral concerns surrounding them in fourth-century Antioch. 

Second Encomium on the Holy Martyr Pelagia (St. John Chrysostom)

Introduction

 

The Second Homily on Saint Pelagia and the Question of Its Authorship

The second homily on Saint Pelagia has traditionally circulated under the name of Saint John Chrysostom and was regarded by Montfaucon as probably genuine. For a long time, however, that judgment rested largely upon a Latin translation, which is itself somewhat free and occasionally inaccurate. The Greek original remained unknown to Montfaucon and was published only later by Franchi de’ Cavalieri from Vaticanus graecus 2033, the manuscript that preserves the text. Franchi undertook a detailed examination of the homily precisely because the Greek original made possible a much more serious judgment about its authorship.  

Franchi begins by acknowledging that there are substantial reasons for associating the work with Chrysostom. The homily is brief but well organized, with a clear exordium, narrative, and peroration, and its subject matter and rhetorical manner resemble the first homily on Pelagia. Several expressions, images, and turns of phrase also have close parallels in Chrysostom's unquestionably genuine works. The description of Pelagia as combining the innocence of the dove with the prudence of the serpent, the imagery of the net and the escaped prey, the contrast between the martyr's body and the bodiless devil, the dramatic apostrophe to the devil after Pelagia's leap, and several of the exhortations at the conclusion all have recognizable Chrysostomian parallels

Venerable Pelagia of Antioch in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church (1 of 2)

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

1. Venerable Pelagia lived during the reign of Emperor Numerian and was from the city of Antioch. She lived among the orchestras and theaters of the time and was a prostitute, gathering a great deal of money from this wicked occupation. But when she was catechized in the Christian faith by Bishop Nonnus, who was a holy man, and earnestly repented, she was baptized and cast aside everything connected with her former sinful life as rubbish. Then she put on garments made of hair and, presenting herself as a man, secretly went to the Mount of Olives, where she enclosed herself in a cell, living out the rest of her life there in a manner pleasing to God. In this cell she reposed in the Lord.

2. Venerable Pelagia belongs to that company of people about whom the Lord, addressing the Pharisees, had said: “The tax collectors and the prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of Heaven.” These are people who, although they do not have a good name socially, unlike the Pharisees, for example, who were considered the best Jews and therefore the closest to God, are distinguished by their good disposition and good intention, and who, for this reason, as soon as the call comes from God, immediately respond and follow God. The Lord spoke the Parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, as well as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, concerning such people, in order to show that what ultimately counts before God is awareness of one’s sinfulness, the “God, be propitious to me, the sinner,” and not an image of a person’s self-justification, perhaps because of some of his good deeds, which brings nothing upon him from God except condemnation.