Paisios of Mount Athos

Life events

1. Born — 1924

   Arsenios Eznepides was born on 7 August 1924 in Pharasa (Çamlıca), Cappadocia, during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. He was baptized by Arsenios the Cappadocian, who named the child for himself and foretold his monastic vocation.

2. Other — 1945

   During the Greek Civil War, Arsenios enlisted in the Hellenic Army and served as a radio operator, volunteering to serve on the front line so that men with families would not have to.

3. Tonsured — 1954

   On 27 March 1954, having completed four years as a novice at Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos, Arsenios was tonsured a Rassophore monk and given the name Averkios.

4. Tonsured — 1957

   On 12 March 1957, at Philotheou Monastery, Averkios was tonsured to the Small Schema and given the name Paisios, in honour of Metropolitan Paisios II of Caesarea, whose native village was Pharasa.

5. Pilgrimage — 1962

   In 1962, Paisios traveled to Saint Catherine's Monastery on Sinai, where he stayed for two years, becoming close to the local Bedouin community and using proceeds from his carved woodwork to buy food for them.

6. Tonsured — 1966

   On 11 January 1966, Paisios received the Great and Angelic Schema — the highest degree of Eastern monastic profession — from Elder Tikhon at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Stavronikita Monastery.

7. Other — 1979

   In 1979, Paisios moved to Panagouda, a hermitage of Koutloumousiou Monastery on Mount Athos, where his renown as a spiritual elder grew; he limited sleep to two or three hours nightly in order to receive visitors and pray.

8. Died — 1994

   Paisios died on 12 July 1994 at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti, Thessaloniki, having left Mount Athos for cancer surgery in October 1993 and never recovered sufficiently to return. He was buried there beside Arsenios of Cappadocia.

Relationships

Documented claims

• The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized Paisios on 13 January 2015, one of the fastest canonization processes in recent Orthodox church history. The Russian Orthodox Church added him to its Menology on 5 May 2015. (certain)
• In 2017 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece declared Paisios patron saint of the military communications corps, connecting his wartime service as a radio operator to his later teaching that humility is 'the frequency on which God operates.' (likely)
• Paisios authored six volumes of Spiritual Counsels, covering topics from contemporary social life and spiritual struggle to family life and prayer, published posthumously in Greek and translated into English by the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, Souroti. (likely)
• Numerous geopolitical prophecies attributed to Paisios — including a predicted Turkish invasion of Greece — have been widely criticized as unsubstantiated; some of his own associates stated he never made such political pronouncements. (disputed)
• On 2 October 2023, Archbishop Makarios formally declared Paisios the Protector of Australia and Patron Saint of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, the first such declaration for a saint canonized in the twenty-first century. (likely)