Monthly Archives: November 2017

The Little Orphan

orphan-sos2

 

The Little Orphan

an autobiographical poem

by St. John Jacob (the Romanian)

Blessed John (Jacob) of Neamts, the New Chozebite

“the child of zero” who “followed the One”*

 

Resurrection Day!

The bells are ringing!

Old men sit at their verandas,

Others are at their doorsteps.

 

The young and the children

Go out in their best clothes

To meet their friends at the church

Of the cemetery.

 

This mystical fragrance

Of the Holy Feast!

They take it in … like incense,

From herbs and flowers.

 

The Fields are robed

In a beautiful dress

And everything looks now

Renewed on the earth.

 

Near the Holy Altar

Of the wooden church

A little child offers

Candles and oil.

 

He kisses the Holy Cross

In front of the fresh tomb

And kneels crying

With sighs.

 

When the bells are ringing

In a jubilant tone

Near the Cross the little orphan

Sheds tears with pain.

 

Suddenly, while absorbed in his tears

And his deep sighs,

At the ringing of the bells

A sweet voice he hears :

 

“Cry Not, my child, today

Feel not sad, because, look!

By your side am I

Christ is Risen!”

 

Was this his mother’s voice

Coming from the tomb

His sadness to dispel

From his broken bosom?

 

Immediately the orphan

Rises and ecstatically looks up,

Searching to find

Who was speaking to him.

 

Then, from the Altar most Holy

By the smoked wall

He sees the Risen Christ

Sweetly smiling to him.

 

His little heart is lit

His face calms

His pain leaves him

And such is his mind:

 

“If I see here

The Risen Lord

Then my mother too

Is risen with Him.”

 

Speaking thus to his mind

Humbly he bows

And kissing the tomb

Returns to his ‘home’!

 

Alone, lonely, he lives

At his earthly lodgings,

His poor father

Died at the war.

 

Often at nights he sleeps

By the tomb with them.

Crying in the morning he returns

Back to the deserted house.

 

But the bells ring!

Again at the cemetery

His mother’s voice

Is heard to say:

 

“Cry not, my child, today

Do not be sad,

Because, lo, I am with you

Christ is Risen!”

 

Since then our little orphan

Stopped sighing.

And whenever the bells ring

His heart is consoled!

 

​

* A Hermit from the Holy Land with complete Incorruptible Relics at the monastery of St. George Choziba! He was a great ascetic and a poet. He called himself “the child of zero” who “followed the One”. After his all night- vigils, he would briefly rest in the verandah of the monastery and write his so moving poetry, sadly not translated yet in English.
* The painting is by the Serbian artist Uroš Predić, Siroče (Orphan), oil on canvas, 1888. National Museum

Memory Eternal!

November 4, 2009

+ Blessed Eusebios Vittis

vittis

“Toward the last years of his life, I had the blessing to speak with him in private and pray together. Those piercing, blazing eyes! Elder Eusebios, the mystic, the poet, the Seer of God, as they called him! This Meeting burns still in my heart!  I have also met a number of his spiritual children and know firsthand how much he helped them in all their lives’ trials and tribulations, how Father-like he stood by their side! May we have his blessing!” (Little city hermit)

‘For they shall see God’

*

My offering

By Eusebios Vittis

 

My offering will be:

For all of Your sheep that do not know You and therefore do not communicate with You, I will communicate.

For all Your sheep, who cry for their transgressions and deviations, small and large, whether in knowledge or in ignorance, I will cry.

For all of Your sheep, who sink in the quicksand of sin, losing their purity, I will lament.

For all Your sheep, who sleep the blissful sleep of negligence and indifference, I will stay awake.

For all Your sheep, who blaspheme You and despise You, because they never truly knew You, I will hymn You and will give You glory.

For all Your sheep, held captive to whatever passion, on bended knee I will beg You to free them from their dreaful bonds.

For all Your sheep, who fall into the hands of wolves, with agony and desperation, I cry out to You:
Lord, Lord, Lord, save them! Resue them!

For all Your sheep, who find themselves in hopeless situations, in isolation, in inability to think and unable to find a saving escape from the labyrinth in which they find tehmselves, I will pray to You.

~Fr. Eusebios Vittis (+2009)

Translation M.T.

*

A Testimony

“I knew Father Eusebios during his time here in Sweden. I first met him in 1964 when he came to Uppsala to study at the university. He soon became involved in helping the Greek immigrants who came to this country in the 1960’s. He assisted his compratiots in many ways, both practically and spiritually.

The lack of Orthodox priests in this country at the time made him decide to become a priest. I took part in his ordination i Stockholm. He then travelled all around the country to serve the various emerging Greek communities.

The lack of understanding from the ruling hierarch at the time forced him to abandon his mission as a parish priest and after a short stay outside Sweden he returned to the country and led his life as a part-time janitor in a retreat house and diocese center belonging to the (Evangelical-Lutheran) Church of Sweden.

He bought an old house in the forest a few kilometers away from his work and turned on of the rooms there to a chapel.

In 1980 I made a radio programme with him. That was just before his departure to Greece and the Holy Mountain. Since then we have been in contact every now and then.

You will find information (in Greek and Swedish) about the Fellowship who preserve his old home here: http://agiosnikolaosrattvik.wordpress.com/”

By torsten kälvemark