The late Archimandrite Hierotheos Sifakis, Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios the Cenobiarch, reposed in the Lord on Tuesday afternoon January 28th 2025 at the age of 94. He had been in the Holy Land for over 70 years and served as Abbot of the Monastery of Abba Theodosios for over 45 years.
Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolia presided over his funeral on January 29th. Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem was unable to preside due to his traveling to Albania to participate in the funeral of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania.
Elder Eudokimos, the spiritual father of the Lavra of Saint Savvas the Sanctified, has been appointed by the Patriarchate as the custodian of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios on a temporary basis.
The late Elder, who as a soldier had fought in Korea, spoke in a December 2020 interview with Pemptousia about life in the Holy Land, the problems he faced especially from Palestinian Muslims, the abandonment he felt and the places of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, which are Greek and therefore should not be abandoned by Greeks. Humble as he was, he did not speak at all about the attacks he had received. He only said of himself and the two nuns who took care of the Monastery: “We are three bees in a large beehive. It is very difficult...", while emphasizing that he is begging the Panagia to reveal someone else as a successor, to take over the Monastery.
Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolia presided over his funeral on January 29th. Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem was unable to preside due to his traveling to Albania to participate in the funeral of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania.
Elder Eudokimos, the spiritual father of the Lavra of Saint Savvas the Sanctified, has been appointed by the Patriarchate as the custodian of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios on a temporary basis.
The late Elder, who as a soldier had fought in Korea, spoke in a December 2020 interview with Pemptousia about life in the Holy Land, the problems he faced especially from Palestinian Muslims, the abandonment he felt and the places of pilgrimage in the Holy Land, which are Greek and therefore should not be abandoned by Greeks. Humble as he was, he did not speak at all about the attacks he had received. He only said of himself and the two nuns who took care of the Monastery: “We are three bees in a large beehive. It is very difficult...", while emphasizing that he is begging the Panagia to reveal someone else as a successor, to take over the Monastery.
In January 2018 however he did speak more openly about the problems he faced to some pilgrims who recorded him talking about it, which can be read about here.
Originally from the village of Machairas in Heraklion, the late Elder who had spoken on CRETE TV when the Hamas-Israel war broke out, was a rare example of humility and holiness. His path as a monk and priest was full of sacrifice and offering.
One of the last living Elders who guarded the Orthodox holy sites of pilgrimage in the Holy Land with unparalleled self-denial, decided from an early age to dedicate his life to monasticism, and for more than seventy years he lived and ministered in the Holy Land having served as abbot in many Orthodox holy sites of pilgrimage. In the last years of his life he was completely dedicated to the Lavra of Saint Theodosios, where he daily celebrated services and prayed for the whole world.
Many times he was faced with the dangers surrounding the monastery, with himself facing health problems, but always standing as a sleepless guardian of the faith and with his sparkling gaze he welcomed the pilgrims, asking them not to forget his monastery.
His death leaves a great void in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, being one of the last living Elders who selflessly guarded the Orthodox holy sites of pilgrimage in the Holy Land.
Below is the address spoken at his funeral by Metropolitan Hesychios of Capitolia:
Your Eminences Holy Hierarchs,
Revered Holy Fathers and Brothers,
Pious Pilgrims of the Holy Places,
A sacred and holy duty summons us today to the prestigious and historic Sacred Monastery of our Venerable Father Theodosios the Cenobiarch, in order to bid farewell to our great brother Archimandrite Hierotheos, abbot and renovator of this ancient Sacred Monastery.
Seeing the "truly most terrible mystery of death" thus looming within us, we exclaim with Saint John of Damascus: "What pleasure of life abides unshared by sorrow? What glory has stood on earth unchangeable? Ever weaker shadows, ever more deceptive dreams; one inclination and all these are succeeded by death." This terrible and gloomy reality, introduced into our human race due to the original transgression, as a kind of corruption and unnatural end, our All-Good God, “so that evil might not become immortal,” restored, that is, “he did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,” (Rom. 8:32), who “humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8), “that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) and “so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15).
In this confession and sacred faith of our Holy Church, our brother Archimandrite Hierotheos, in the world John Sifakis, was raised, having been born in 1929 in the village of Machairas, Heraklion, Crete, where he received a general education. In 1953 he enlisted in Greece and participated in an expeditionary force and went to Korea, where the hardships, sufferings and lessons would guide him for the rest of his life. During his time in Korea, he made a vow to the Holy God that if he were saved from the war, he would go to the Holy Land to venerate the Holy Places. He returned from Korea and after a few months, with a friend of his, he completed his vow.
In September 1954, during his visit to Jerusalem, he met the late Patriarch Timotheos, who, meeting the then John, persistently urged him to remain in the Holy Places, so as to serve the Church. When young John replied that he is illiterate and therefore cannot do so, the Patriarch replied that “the Apostles were illiterate too!” Thus our beleaguered brother, having been captured, abandoned the army of the earthly King and enlisted in the expeditionary phalanx of the Heavenly Master, namely our ancient Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. He showed zeal and self-denial in his ministry, and never returned to Greece again!
Upon his decision to remain here, he was appointed a supervisor at the Patriarchal School and in 1956 he assumed the care of the Sacred Monastery of Mount Tabor, where he was tonsured a monk on May 5, 1957, then ordained Deacon and Presbyter that same year by Metropolitan Isidore of Nazareth. Since then, he has served in various ministries of our Sacred Community, as the administrator of the estates of the Tower of Saint Savvas, as Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Gerasimos, as Abbot in Jericho, as Abbot of the Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner by the Jordan, as Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of the Honorable Cross, and as Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Saint George in Beit Jala.
On August 25, 1976, he was appointed Abbot for life of the Sacred Monastery of Abba Theodosios the Cenobiarch. During his almost fifty years of ministry there, he worked with divine zeal for the renovation and beautification of the Monastery, decorating the sacred temple with Byzantine iconography and embellishing its floor with beautiful marble. He built the second floor of the southwest wing of the Monastery, creating a guesthouse for the hospitality of devout pilgrims, whom the Elder Hierotheos loved and always dedicated hours to communicating with them for their spiritual edification and support.
Thus, not timid in the face of dangers, he fervently defended the lands of the Patriarchate around the Monastery from the plotters, often at the risk of his life.
The humanly arising question: “How did he endure these difficulties?” can be answered through the Apostle Paul, who says: “What then shall we say to these things? … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, 'For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us'” (Rom. 8:31,35-37). These words can explain the earthly life of Archimandrite Hierotheos and his firm faith in the fulfillment of his monastic identity and the sacred mission of our Holy Sepulchre Brotherhood, for which, sparing no effort, he devoted himself for 71 years.
On behalf of His Beeatitude, our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mr. Theophilos III, who traveled today to Albania to attend the Funeral Service of the late Archbishop Anastasios, I beg you, that we pray from the depths of our souls to the immortal King of both the dead and the living, Christ, for the repose of the soul of our blessed brother Archimandrite Hierotheos in the land of the living, with the righteous and the saints, so that on that day of Judgment, he may “shine forth as the sun with the angels into life eternal, with our Lord Jesus Christ, ever seeing Him and being in His sight and deriving unceasing joy from Him” (John of Damascus).
May your memory be eternal, you are worthy of being blessed and remembered, our brother!”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
