Saint Paisios of Mount Athos
Monk of Mount Athos, elder and comforter
- Feast day
- July 12
- Lived
- 1924–1994
- Patronage
- Families in trouble, soldiers, those seeking counsel
Saint Paisios was a carpenter and radio operator before becoming the most sought-after elder on Mount Athos, receiving hundreds of visitors a day at his hut with humour, bluntness, and evident love.
Life
Born Arsenios Eznepidis in Cappadocia and baptised by Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia days before his family fled to Greece in the population exchange, he worked as a carpenter and served as a radio operator in the Greek civil war, repeatedly volunteering for the most dangerous positions to spare married men.
He became a monk on Athos in 1950, spent years at Stomio in Konitsa and on Sinai, and settled finally at the hut of Panagouda near Koutloumousiou, where the queues of visitors sometimes stretched for hours. He gave away everything he received, ate almost nothing, and slept a few hours a night.
Teaching and glorification
His counsels, collected in the six volumes of Spiritual Counsels, are direct, funny and utterly practical, dealing with anxiety, family conflict, prayer and the passions. He died of cancer in 1994 at the convent of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti, near Thessaloniki, where his grave is a place of continual pilgrimage. He was glorified in 2015.
When Saint Paisios of Mount Athos is commemorated
The feast falls on July 12 on the Revised Julian (New) calendar used by most Greek, Antiochian and Romanian parishes. Parishes that keep the Julian (Old) calendar — much of the Russian, Serbian and Georgian Churches, and Mount Athos — celebrate it on the civil date July 25, thirteen days later. You can switch between both reckonings anywhere on this site.
See the full liturgical day for July 12, 2027
That page gives the fasting rule in force, the Epistle and Gospel appointed for the day, and every other saint commemorated alongside Saint Paisios of Mount Athos. To keep the feast, look for a parish in the USA, Canada or Australia directory, and read the Akathist hymns appointed for private prayer.
Other saints commemorated in July
- John of Shanghai and San FranciscoJuly 2
- Macrina the YoungerJuly 19
- Mary MagdaleneJuly 22
- PanteleimonJuly 27
- ParaskeviJuly 26
- Vladimir of KievJuly 15