By Archimandrite Joachim Spetsieris
I stayed in Kefallonia for more than a month and visited many parts of Kefallonia and the tomb of the priest Panagis Basias,* who while he was still alive had the reputation of a saint.
The tomb of the priest Panagis Typaldos Basias is outside the sanctuary (the Holy Bema) on the right side of the Church of Saint Spyridon in Lixouri.
As they told me, when he passed away, the people insisted that he be buried inside the sanctuary, but because the Sacred Synod did not allow it, they buried him below the Holy Altar. That is, outside the sanctuary they dug the grave, but they continued until they passed the foundations of the Church of Saint Spyridon; then they dug and made an underground gallery, proceeding to the Holy Altar. There they deposited his holy relic. Then they sealed the hole they made in the foundation and marked it from the outside, while the holy relic is inside to this day.
I met him when I was still a child and I was in Lixouri. Many and various miracles performed by him are narrated.
As his biographer Zisimos Typaldos writes, he was born in Lixouri of Kefallonia in 1800 and after studying according to the times he was appointed public teacher in Lixouri, but the divine fire was burning in his heart and he asked for a quiet place so that he could talk through prayer to Christ whom he longed for. For this reason he departed to the island of Dias and there he was alone praying without interruption. But because his father departed for the Lord and his mother and sister were left without protection, he returned to his father's house and in 1832 was ordained a priest.
All that he had in his father's house he distributed to the poor after selling all the furniture of the house and every vessel. And because love for God ignited his heart, as well as love for his fellow man, all that he received as a rector he distributed to the poor. As he no longer had anything of his own to give to the poor, he went through the shops, and whatever he got he gave to families in need.
I remember that, when I was a child, when he passed on the street all the children would run and kiss his hand to bless us.
One Sunday he was liturgizing in the Church of the Three Hierarchs and I went to the liturgy like many others, so the church was full. He stood outside the sanctuary near the right chanter and from old age he said the petitions very slowly, while the congregation ecstatically looked at the officiating Panagis Basias. To me he even seemed like an angel, that is, like someone superior to other people.
Many said that while it was raining heavily he walked down the street without getting wet at all.
One day I went with my father to the cell of Panagis Basias to have him read evil eye prayers for me, because I was a little sick and my father assumed that I was suffering from the evil eye. Instead of the evil eye prayers, he gave me and I venerated a small icon of the Panagia. After I venerated it, he said to me: "Go, you have nothing, the Panagia will take you with her." This meant nothing but that I would go to Mount Athos and become a monk, and indeed it happened.
One day, while he was crossing the bridge of the Lixouri river, someone was coming from the opposite side holding a handkerchief in his right hand, in which he had fish that he had bought from the fish market. He venerated the priest Panagis Basias and kissed his hand. The priest Panagis Basias said to him: "What do you have in the handkerchief?" “Fish,” he said. "Put them down so I can see what fish they are." As soon as that man opened the handkerchief, the priest Panagis Basias took two and threw them into the river saying to him: "Be careful, be careful!" and left. This man would say: "I had stolen these two fish without the fisherman realizing."
His mother had died and he was living with his sister; while it was Sunday and his sister Maria was preparing the table for them to eat, suddenly a poor man came and said to the priest Panagis Basias: "I'm hungry!" Then Basias gave him the bread they had to eat. Not a few minutes passed and another poor man came and he gave him the food also. Then his sister Maria said: "Now what are we going to eat?" "God will provide," he answered, and with that the servant of a rich family entered, bringing bread and food. "These," he said, "my master sent." And then Basias said to Maria: "Did I not tell you that God will provide?"
And many other miracles are recounted that he did in his life as a priest.
As soon as I approached his grave, I said to those who were there: "Why do you not transfer them?" Because in the Ionian Islands there is no custom of transferring like in other places.
When he passed away I was in Jerusalem. As I was informed, they had left his holy relic unburied for fifty hours and they were hastening from all parts of Kefallonia and kissing it. I am confident that his remains will be incorruptible and sanctified like the holy relics of the saints.
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* This took place in November of 1891.
Source: Απομνημονεύματα του αρχιμανδρίτου Ιωακείμ Σπετσιέρη. Τόμος Β’. Ελλάς. Μέρος Γ’, σελ. 12-14. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.