A pilgrimage a few years ago to the Agathon Monastery has been deeply imprinted in our hearts and minds, where our late Holy Elder Kyrillos, in front of the shrine of the incorruptible Elder Bessarion, with the simplicity that distinguished him, told us about a miraculous event.
Present were the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Agathon, the late Elder Damaskinos.
Also present were Elder Gabriel, now Abbot of the Monastery of the Venerable David, then as the companion and subordinate of Elder Kyrillos, along with the Priest from Ypati, Father Demetrios Karagiannis, my brother George with his wife, and me with my husband Konstantinos and our son.
A little earlier, we had celebrated Divine Liturgy together in the Monastery of Great Meteoron, in Ypati, at the Church of Saint Athanasios of Meteora and we had with us the Holy Head of Venerable David, since the Elder had brought it with the fathers to Lamia.
There, in front of the sacred relic of Venerable Bessarion, the Elder told us that a few years ago, not far from the time of the transfer of the incorruptible relics of Venerable Bessarion, he had the desire and came to the Agathon Monastery to venerate the sacred relic.
At that time, the relic of the Saint was in the same place in the left chapel of the katholikon, but without the later glass cover of the wooden box, where it was initially placed. Thus, one could directly kiss the relic without the interference of the glass case.
As Elder Kyrillos told us, he wanted to kiss the hand of the Saint, which tightly holds the small Gospel, from the time of his burial. "So," he says, "as I approached the sacred relic with reverence and with faith I said pleadingly to the Saint: 'Saint Bessarion, I can't reach to kiss you (Elder Kyrillos was short and had difficulty moving while the relic was placed too high for him), please give me your hand to kiss.'"
The Saint then opened his hand, put down the Gospel, and Father Kyrillos, quite naturally, took his hand into his own. He raised it to the level of his mouth as if it were a living body with elasticity, kissed it with reverence and left it in its original position. Once again the Saint took hold of the Gospel and has continued to hold it tightly ever since.
Father Demetrios Karagiannis, rector of Saint Nicholas in Ypati, who was present at this scene, as a novice hymnographer, did not fail to recount this miraculous event, during which natural laws were visibly dissolved, in the Sacred Service that he recently composed in honor of Venerable Bessarion.
During Great Vespers, in one of the Prosomia, he mentions the following:
"A dreadful miracle was seen by you, when you offered to the hand of Kyrillos your Divine temporary dwelling - grace-flowing, august and revered - for the sake of being kissed, and now the divine words of the Prophet in the Psalms have been fulfilled, who in the Spirit said that the righteous will not taste death. Therefore, encircling the grace-flowing coffin, blessed one, we all ask for the graces of your intercessions, for the mediation of the righteous is very powerful before the Lord."
A Personal Testimony AND GLORY TO GOD,
Sofia Kalogirou
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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