By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas
Saint Paisios the Athonite was born in Farasa of Cappadocia on July 25, 1924. At his baptism, he received the name Arsenios, which was given to him by Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian, because he wanted, as he said, to leave "a monk at his feet." From a young age he had a great love for Christ and for His love he "endured difficult paths." In the army he served as a radio operator, but throughout his earthly life he was "God's radio operator", as he was aptly called. He often cited examples from his life as a radio operator in the army, in order to teach prayer, which is the spiritual wireless communication with Christ, the Panagia and the Saints.
In 1954 he became a monk with the name Averkios and later he was named Paisios. He became a monk at first in the Sacred Monastery of Esphigmenou and then in the Sacred Monastery of Philotheou. Later he went to the Sacred Monastery of Stomiou, in Konitsa, which he restored, and then he lived in asceticism in the Sinai desert, in the Cell of Saints Galaktion and Episteme. In 1964 he returned to the Holy Mountain, specifically to Katounakia, then later to the Cell of the Honorable Cross, near the Sacred Monastery of Stavronikita, and from 1979 until the end of his life (July 12, 1994) he lived in asceticism in the Cell of Panagouda, which is located nearby the capital of the Holy Mountain, Karyes. Despite the illnesses he faced from time to time, and which he endured with amazing calmness and patience, he gave himself to excessive asceticism. He used to say that patience in diseases and temptations is "savings in the Bank of heaven." However, where his patience was tested the most, was in the disease of cancer, from which he experienced horrible pains.
He truly loved God, but also the people, whom he ministered to with self-denial and continues to minister and do good, since his grave in the Sacred Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti, near the city of Thessaloniki, is a healing shrine that heals psychic and physical illnesses. Externally it is a simple and unadorned grave, but internally it is a volcano, which, however, when its lava erupts, does not ignite, but cools, comforts, transforms and regenerates people.
His life and his conduct give us the occasion to emphasize the following:
First, it is one thing to open a Synaxarion and read the life of a saint and then write it down and comment on it, and it is another to write about a saint whom you have personally met, talked with and tasted the sweetness of his regenerative words.
When you met him, you felt that you saw a person of your own, who loves you and is truly interested in you. He was cheerful, and had a good sense of humor which he used as a multipurpose therapeutic tool. With this he opened hearts, modified the thoughts or removed them completely, comforted, supported, encouraged, awakened consciences, led to repentance. He knew how to correct you without hurting you. The word was consoling, since in his heart the Comforter Spirit resided. In his cell or in his open-air guest house, you deposited all the weight of your soul and left light. When you went, you had difficulty dragging your feet and when you left, you were not walking, but literally flying. His words were deeply impressed in your soul and determined your later life and your conduct.
He urged his visitors, especially when they asked him, to gain friendship with the saints and angels. "Give the saints," he said, "your address and they will come to find you." And to the question: "How will this be done?" he gave, to the one who asked, a prayer rope. This means that by praying to the saints and angels we gain friendship with them and they intercede for us and protect us. Once he scolded a visitor who was a Priest, urging him to go "to clean the icons". And, obviously, he meant the living icons of Christ, the people. In fact, he previously told him, because he asked for his advice regarding his priestly ministry, that the Priest must be friendly, generous and love people, not scold them. "These three if you pay attention and apply them," he told him, "you will succeed as a Priest."
Second, he constantly referred to noble love, i.e. the selfless love that offers and is offered without expecting anything in return, and to philotimo, which, as he said, "is the reverent essence of kindness, the distilled love of the humble man." "The heart," he said, "of someone who has philotimo "is full of gratitude to God and people," and then the philotimo person "out of spiritual subtlety (sensitivity) tries to repay even the smallest kindness that others do to him."
He himself was a man of philotimo, a true noble, who constantly gave to everyone simply from the wealth of his loving heart, in which the Holy Spirit resided, and it was what everyone needed. Once he was asked about what noble love means and who is a noble, and he replied that noble love means sacrifice and offering. And a noble is he who constantly wants to minister and offer, while the opposite of nobility is the mentality of a beggar. In fact, he emphasized that the joy a person feels when receiving a gift is human, while the joy he feels when he offers is divine.
Noble-selfless love, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and not a simple feeling, respects the freedom of others. After all, a love that does not respect the freedom of others is selfish, impassioned, and in reality it is tyranny. But even freedom without love is anarchy.
I believe that all those who approached him could smell, some more and some less, each according to his receptivity, the spiritual fragrance of his words, and tasted the sweetness and warmth of his loving heart. He knew the way to cure the impassioned thoughts that sicken the whole human existence, to lead people to repentance and to infuse them with the hope of eternal life.
Hopefully through his intercessions we will gain philotimo, but also harmonize the "antenna" of our lives to the frequency emitted by Christ, the Panagia and the Saints, and this frequency is, as he said, humility and love.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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