Saint Paisios – Signs of the Times

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ is in our midst.

War is raging all over the world and the Fathers are urging us to fall on our knees and pray. Not stop our obediences, but pray!!! I am not ignoring this appalling tragedy unfolding day after day before our own eyes, but in this specific blogpost and in a couple more to follow, I would like to address one rather sensitive matter unfolding in Greece these days, and that is the Holy Synod’s of the Church of Greece decision, on June 12 and 13, 2025, under the presidency of His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, to endorse the new “personal number” system introduced by Presidential Decree 40/2025. This system aims to replace existing identification numbers, such as the ID card number, tax number (AFM), and social security number (AMKA), with a single unified number to streamline public sector registry integration. In its official statement, the Holy Synod clarified that the personal number does not raise theological concerns or infringe on individual freedoms, including personal data rights.  This approval and endorsement is one problem, but the Synod’s insistence “that the personal number does not raise theological concerns” is even more problematic since it seems to contradict most recent Saints’ opinions on this matter.

For this reason, I would like to present to you in a series 3 documents I have from + Gerondas Gregorios, my spiritual father of blessed memory, and St. Paisios, starting with the “Signs of the Times”. The following text of Saint Paisios is written in the Saint’s own hand, in the year 1987, and it was the only time he had given the order for it to be distributed in photocopies (with his handwriting and spelling errors), because as he himself said, he knew that they would try to deny that He had written it and to distort His opinion. What follows is the translation of St. Paisios’ text:

After the demonic storm, the Divine sunshine will come.

I

Behind the secular spirit of today’s “freedom” of disrespect for the Church of Christ, for elders, parents and teachers, who fear God, lies spiritual slavery, anxiety, and anarchy, which lead the world to a dead end, to mental and physical destruction.

So, behind the perfect “service card” computer security system, lies the global dictatorship, the slavery of the antichrist. “Rev. John ch. 13’ 16 “to give them a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that they may not buy or sell except one who has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom; let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man, and his number is sixty-six”. = 666.

Saint Andrew of Caesarea concludes the following: “About the impure name of

II

Antichrist. And the accuracy of the vote, as well as the rest of what is written about him, will be revealed by time and experience will bring wisdom;…… but divine grace did not deign to write the name of Lymeon in a divine book; as in a gymnasium, there are many things to be found…. ” Saint Andrew of Caesarea, explanation of the Apocalypse of John, pp. 341-42, ch. 11. –

The strange thing is, many spiritual people, besides giving their own interpretations, are also afraid of the worldly fear of being enveloped, while they should be spiritually concerned, and help Christians with good concern, and stimulate them in faith, to feel divine comfort.

I wonder! Don’t all these events concern them? Why don’t they put at least a question mark on the interpretations of their minds? And if they rely on the antichrist for the sealing, how do they lead other souls to perdition? This means; “…deceive, if possible, even the elect.” Mark. 13’ ”.

Those who interpret them with their minds will be deceived.

And while the signs are clearly visible; “the beast” in Brussels with 666 has almost sucked all the states into the computer. What do the card, the identity card, “the introduction of the sealing” reveal? Unfortunately, we only watch the radio to see what weather we will have.

What will Christ tell us? “Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot understand the signs of the times?” Matt. chap. 2, 5!

So after the card, and the identity card, “the envelope” to proceed cunningly with the sealing, they will continue to say on television that someone took his card and withdrew his money from the bank.

On the other hand, they will advertise “the perfect system”; the sealing on the hand or forehead with laser beams, which will not be externally discernible, with 666 the name of the antichrist.

Unfortunately, again “certain gnostics” will swaddle their spiritual children like babies, supposedly so as not to worry; “this does not bother, it is nothing, it is enough that you believe inwardly!”. And while we see the apostate Peter who externally denied Christ, and it was denial, they deny the Holy sealing of Christ that was given to them in Holy Baptism; “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” by accepting the seal of the antichrist, they also say that they have Christ within them!!

Unfortunately, such logic was also held by certain “gnostics” in the years of the Holy Martyrs, who were trying to convert the prospective martyrs, as Basil the Great mentions in his speech to the Martyr Gordius: “… many were foolish in trying to convince the Martyr to deny only with words, and to hold the faith with the soul, the inner disposition, because God does not pay attention to the tongue but to the disposition. However, the Martyr Gordius was inflexible and responded: “He does not tolerate any tongue created apart from Christ to speak against the Creator… do not be deceived. God is not mocked. “From our own mouths he judges us, from our words he justifies us and from our words he condemns us”.

Also, during the reign of Decius, he demanded by decree that the pagans confess their religion, and all those Christians who declared themselves Christians and sacrificed to idols received a certificate and were spared martyrdom. Not only were these deniers of Christ, but also those who gave money to the pagans in the commission and received the certificate without refusing, the so-called “libellophores” and these our Church considered apostates – fallen.

And while we have so many examples, such as the miracle of Saint Theodore, which is celebrated every year on Saturday of the First Week of Lent: “Julian the transgressor, knowing that the Christians They are rather purified by fasting in the first week of Holy Lent, which we also call Clean Week for this reason, and it was then decided to defile them. Therefore, he secretly ordered that during those days, odors contaminated with the blood of idolatrous sacrifices be placed in the market. But the Martyr Theodore, in a dream, divinely revealed to the then Archbishop of Constantinople, Eudooxion

and having made the matter known, he ordered him to summon the faithful immediately on Monday morning and prevent them from using those odors, and to make up for the lack of necessary food from what was at hand with kolibons”…… In this way the purpose of the transgressor was thwarted, and the pious People, preserved undefiled……” – Horologion the Great, p. 446…-

To abstain from idolatrous sacrifices is a rule of the Holy Apostles. Acts. Apos. chap. 6e’…… “And the apostles and the elders were gathered together…… to abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication…”.

Despite all that I have mentioned, one unfortunately hears a mass of nonsense from certain “Gnostics” of today, one saying; “I will accept the identity with 666, I will also put a Cross”, and the other saying; “I will accept the seal on the head with 666 and I will also make a Cross on the head…..” and a mass of similar nonsense, who think that they will be sanctified in this way while these are errors.

Only those that accept sanctification, only those are sanctified. Like; Water,

accept sanctification, and it becomes Sanctification. Urine does not accept sanctification.

Stone, by a miracle, becomes bread. Impurity, does not accept sanctification.

Therefore, the devil, the antichrist, when he is in our identity or on our hand, or on our head, with his symbol, is not sanctified by putting on a Cross.

We have the power of the honorable Cross of the Holy Symbol, the divine grace of Christ, only when we are content with the Holy Seal of Baptism, when we renounce Satan, and we are united to Christ, and we accept the Holy Seal; “Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit”. –

May Christ give us good enlightenment. Amen. –

Holy Mountain, Koutloumousiou cell “Panagouda”

Saturday of the First Lent 1987.

With much pain and love of Christ,

Monk Paisios”.

The Earthly and the Celestial Pilgrims— Part 2

https://youtu.be/2MShiJk761s?si=s2Ga3kxsHLlmJiCL

https://youtu.be/WtlQEOeeCxA?si=bFDMsAXcZ42nwo7y

Upon entering the bright light of the monastery of St Porphyrios, I encountered two presences in its stillness.

Peter, St Porphyrios’ parrot

Peter, St. Porphyrios’ parrot, still looking for him after 30+ years and reciting the Jesus prayer the Saint taught him.

Watch him in the video below recite the Jesus prayer in St Porphyrios’ voice!

https://youtu.be/ewtDpSFC7mk?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/ov2Td4coraE?si=zL-cO15sUsp_cEUb

Nearby, one also encounters Giorgos Arvanitis’ grave, the only lay person buried in Milesi, a humble presence everywhere in the monastery,even in the Saint’s Cell, next to the Theotokos icon the Saint was photographed with.

Inside St Porphyrios’ cell. Listen to the Saint blessing us: https://youtube.com/shorts/mMxJjsr29Qo?si=uEZwJuq-z_tqxThM

It was St Paisios who sent Georgios Arvanitis to St Porfyrios when Georgios asked his counsel on Mount Athos which spiritual father he recommended for him. St Paisios also humbly confessed to all pilgrims that “his TV was only black and white, whereas St Porphyrios’ was a colour one!” 🙂 So Georgios met St Porphyrios and “was captured by him” [his words].

Georgios Arvanitis, the humble angel ministering St Porphyrios for over 30 years

Giorgos Arvanitis was a successful judge who gave up his career at the height of its success; he gave up everything to become the “beloved disciple” of St. Porphyrios, his “right hand” for over 30 years. He lived for years in a tent in the wilderness, next to St Porphyrios, when there was no monastery in Milesi, just forests and fields. In the beginning, he would sleep in his tent after long vigils together with the Saint, put on his suit and head to courts, then in the afternoon, return to his tent, take off his suit, put on his tracksuit and become one of the Saint’s workers. I’m the end, he gave up everything and was by the Saint’s side all the time, living in obedience.

His last interview before his reposal in the Lord, next to his beloved Father

https://youtu.be/dMSHtHE8pdY?si=1dkCM8plOobksC9

I spent all week studying Giorgos Arvanitis’ diaries and ‘anonymous’ books, and so wished I were him! I cannot begin to imagine what a blessing it must be spending 30+ years by the Saint’s side! Below is an except:

“The relationship between Sts. Porphyrios and Paisios was one of love and spiritual communication. Once, St. Paisios came to the little cell that St. Porphyrios had at first, and after they said whatever they said, St. Paisios left.

Then I [Georgios Arvanitis, the judge] went there, full of curiosity, to St. Paisios and told him: “What did you talk about, Elder? What did you discuss?”

He told me with disarming simplicity: “Eh, the ‘Lord Jesus Christ… [i.e. the Jesus Prayer]”

I expected them to discuss the 666, the 12 bishops, or various ecclesiastical topics. {Georgios Arvanitis, judge in retirement, is laughing} But they prayed together. They found an opportunity to pray together, to “breathe together” in prayer.” (Transcript of the recording here)

After studying closely the writings and memoirs of Archimandtite Mark Manolis of blessed memory and his spiritual children, and those by Georgios Arvantitis, it becomes even more obvious to me how vitally important is to find a spiritual father to do obedience and be in close, if possible, daily interaction with him and his whole spiritual family. God is glorified in His Saints!

Part 1

What did Jesus Christ look like?

Saint Paisios the Athonite: How Jesus Christ looked like?

By Saint Paisios the Athonite

It was the evening after the feast of the Finding of the head of St. John the Forerunner, the eve of the feast day of St. Apostle Carp. I felt very inspired that evening. I did not want to sleep at all and I thought, “ Well, let me write something about Fr. Tikhon and send it to the sisters in Souroti”. By 8:30a.m. I wrote about 30 pages. I still did not want to sleep but decided to lie down for a while because my legs were weak.

Sunrise began. By 9a.m. I was still not sleeping. And suddenly I saw that one of the walls of my cell (the one near which my bed stood) just disappeared. I saw Christ – He was in the light, just about 6 meters from me. I saw Him from His side. His hair was bright and His eyes were blue. He did not say a word to me, but only looked – not right at me, but a bit more to the side.

I saw everything with the non-corporal eyes. In such cases, it does not matter whether your corporal eyes are closed or not. I saw that with my spiritual eyes.

When I saw Him, I thought, “ How could they all spit in that Face? How could they – the people without any fear of God – hit that Face? How could they slam the nails into that Body? Oh, God…”

I was struck by that. How pleased I felt at that moment! What a joy I felt! I cannot express that beauty with words. It was the very beauty about which it was said: “You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips” (Psalm 45:2). This is what that beauty was. I have never seen anything like that on any of His images. There was only one – I do not remember where I have seen it – which looked a bit alike.

A person should work in a monastery ever for a thousand years to see this beauty at least for a moment. What great and indescribable things are gifted to people – and how miserable are the things we try to deal with!

 

After this vision, Saint Paisios the Athonite ordered to the nuns from the monastery of Souroti to make an icon of Christ exactly like he saw Him. The image represents this icon.

The Monastery Diaries 4

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A photo journal 
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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Christ is in our midst!
What a beautiful vigil at St Arsenios’ annual Feast (+St Arsenios of Cappadocia, Nov. 10)! I do not think any of my photos can convey the holiness conveyed through the monks’ exquisite, prayerful chanting,  the Fathers’ prayers, the censing, the tears of the faithful, the dancing chandeliers at Polyelaios…
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Fr Synesios was throwing bay leaves inside the church before Vespers started

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There were lots of hieromonks, laymen and chanters invited to help with the chanting and the hospitality, and several priests and bishops all over the world since Saint Arsenios monastery is a very missionary-minded monastery and Gerondas Theoklitos has quietly and very discreetly founded together with several of his monks lots of monasteries all over the world.

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The Bishop Innokentios of Burundi and Rwanda

The Vigil was in two parts because the Feast was this year on a Sunday: on Saturday evening we had the Vespers and Matins, and on Sunday morning the Hours and the Holy Liturgy. Nonetheless, it was still too long, so long that the faithful were often seen collapsing in their stasidia and seats, and yet at the end, nobody wanted to leave. The monks though were so vigilant, like candles lit, not sitting down even for a minute during all these long hours.

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Some of the kollyva prepared by the faithful and the monks.
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At the end of the Holy Liturgy, the kollyva of the Saint were prayed in front of his icon. These kollyva were such perfect icons “written” on the boiled wheat that we did not want to eat them! Then, all the faithful were given in the monastery yard a bit of this kollyva, artoklasia and special treats for the Feast, the Fathers briefly disappeared in the arhondarikion, and when we thought that we were done with eating and feasting, we were all invited into the monastery’s trapeza for yet for food.
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During the agape meal, lots of chanters and two monks censing with a a katzion (special censer for feasts) and carrying a piece of holy bread,  a part of the proskomide’s holy bread, moved around all of us and we each picked up a very small piece. In that sense, the agape meal felt like yet one more Holy Liturgy after the Holy Liturgy in the church. Prayer seems to be seamlessly woven in all monastic activities, even in the washing-up that followed.

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Gerondas Theoklitos is on the left, Bishop Nikodemus of Kassandreia in the middle and the monk on the right , deeply bowing his head on the right is Father Arsenios. He was shining at his Saint’s Feast throughout the Vigil and the festivities that followed. He was honoured to read the Akathist before the Saint’s icon and the Synaxarion in the church and in the agape meal that followed at the end of the Holy Liturgy where all the faithful were invited to participate in a fellowship of Love and Holiness. Father Arsenios was the first to receive Holy Communion and the last to eat anything in the agape meal. In fact, I am not sure if he ate anything at all this day as he was so full of Joy and his Saint was feeding him with Heavenly food.

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This is Father Nikodemus who greeted me the first dawn here, on his way to a village parish, and we both admired the starlit sky, the “ison” for the worship unfolding in the monastery katholikon.

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Love and poor prayers,
LCH