From birth to monasticism
On October 5, 1934, Alexander Vafidis was born in Piraeus, an area in the Athens suburbs, raised in a strict Christian family. Since childhood, the boy dreamed of being ordained, so after graduating from school he had no doubt about choosing a specialty.
Archimandrite Emilian Vafidis
In 1959, after graduating from the Faculty of Theology, at the University of Athens, on the recommendation of a friend, Anastasius Yiannoulatos, the current Archbishop of Tirana, Alexander went to the monastery. The rector of the monastery, Metropolitan Dionysius of Trikala and Stagon, managed to win the trust of Alexander, who in early October 1960 took monastic vows with the name Emilian.
Advice from Elder Emilian (Vafiadis)
On May 9, it became known about the untimely death of the beloved elder of the Holy Mountain, Emilian (Vafiadis). Having left this world, he will forever remain in the hearts of his spiritual children, as a wise and all-seeing mentor.
About the unexpected
There is always temptation in our lives. Something always happens that we never expected. You come to a monastery, but instead of devoting yourself to spiritual life, you meet bad people. You couldn't have foreseen this. You ask for a cell on the side of the monastery, where there is no humidity, but you suddenly discover that you are allergic to sea air, and you cannot breathe calmly either day or night. Immediately you are tempted to get up and leave. This is an unexpected event.
I can start communicating with a person, thinking that he is good, but see that everything is completely the opposite. I couldn't predict it either.
Always in our lives we will encounter something that we did not expect. This happens because we have desires and expectations. The unexpected is the antonym of desire and expectation, which is why it seems random to us, although in reality it is not. A person who loves God should always repeat: “Thy will be done.”
In order not to be surprised every time and not to worry, so as not to create problems where there are none, a person must expect anything in order to withstand what is coming. Any illness, failure and torment should be greeted with the words: “Welcome!”
On persistence in prayer
When your Christian life becomes difficult, and your cross seems too heavy for you to lift, you must persevere, persevere as the holy martyrs did. If you persist, then after the storm there will be calm, and your life will become joyful again. You will gain experience of spiritual struggle. After this test, after you lift your cross, the flame of Divine love will flare up inside you. This is the most beautiful, strong and pure kind of love, the love of God.
About God in the heart
There is no need to grumble, repeating within yourself: “Lord, where are you? I pray to you, but you never open up to me, you don’t give me joy, you don’t fulfill any of my desires. I ask you for health, but you give me illness. I ask for help, and you give me death. I ask for goodness, but you give me pain. What kind of God are you?”
No! Don't ever think like that. God knows when your heart is ready to receive Him. If you haven't received something, it means it's not ready to fit in your heart. Your heart is full and full, the same thing happens when you put a lot of things together and try to squeeze in more so that there is no empty space or air left at all. So, even air cannot fit in your heart, and you want God to fit there, which cannot even fit in heaven.
As soon as the Lord sees that this is the right moment, he will not keep himself waiting for a second, he will fulfill all your desires, all your dreams.
The dentist will always inject you with an anesthetic and wait for it to take effect before starting work. If you start working right away, you will jump out of your chair in pain. Likewise, the Lord is waiting for the right moment to enlighten you and give you paradise. What you have been wanting for 2, 3, 5, 20 or more years, you can get in one second. Repentance never goes away without a trace, therefore, you do not lose anything when you repent.
Elder Emilian. Monastery of Simonopetra.
From monk to abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery
Staying within the monastery walls of Dusik, a month later the newly converted monk is ordained as a deacon. The dedication takes place in the church of St. Paraskeva in the city of Trikala, after which Deacon Vafidis serves in the Meteor monasteries, raising the monasteries from desolation, performing a wide variety of work in them, making up for the lack of monks.
In mid-August 1961, the Vituma convent accepted the priesthood headed by Metropolitan Dionysius for the ordination of Hierodeacon Emilian to the rank of hieromonk. After this, Hieromonk Vafidis spent three months in the monastic center of Dusikou, keeping a vow of solitude and silence, which radically changed the Christian life of the hieromonk and his attitude towards monasticism.
The heart of the newly converted hieromonk burned with the desire to revive monasticism and monastic life in Greek monasteries, which at that time was in decline.
Metropolitan Dionysius provided his ward with all possible support, blessing Father Vafidis, who had a warm soul and love for God, as abbot of the monastery of the Great Meteor, the large Transfiguration monastery complex, which was undergoing desolation at the end of December 1961.
Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord or Great Meteor, Greece
From the beginning of 1962, the archimandrite became the rector of the Trikala cathedral church, and he was entrusted with the main work among the youth of the diocese. Working with schoolchildren in Greece, the young abbot quickly gained the authority of young people with his personal example of Orthodox life, studying with young friends the monastic canons, norms, and experience of monks.
After 2 years, the monastic compound of the Transfiguration was replenished with two monks, and in 1966 a whole group of recent seminarians became novices of the monastery, and the archimandrite himself accepted the great schema.
Interesting! The year 1968 became a real holiday for the Transfiguration Monastery, the first monks took monastic vows, after which the monastic life of the monastery began to intensively revive, which attracted a large flow of tourists and pilgrims. The monastic brotherhood decided to move to a quieter monastery on Mount Athos.
Living in the Presence of God
Every person is called to holiness and dispassion
Every person is called to holiness, to lead a life undistracted, solitary and concentrated, because this is the only way to become a saint. All the saints were occupied only with God and what could lead them to holiness; everything else did not interest them, did not attract their attention and did not touch their hearts. All the saints strove only for God and holiness and achieved what they wanted [3, 244][1].
Dispassion is the threshold of true life in the Spirit, a guide to God. We are all called to be dispassionate. If God cannot make us dispassionate, then what does His omnipotence mean? Then Christ was crucified in vain, in vain He lives and acts in our hearts, or rather, then the power of God does not act in us. If we see that we do not have dispassion, then we ourselves are to blame for this: this means that we have not yet truly loved God, we are still dead to God, because we have not been completely immersed in the waters of spiritual baptism.
There is a popular belief that if during the baptism of a baby some part of his body was not immersed in water, demons will dwell in it and make the baby possessed or sick. This expresses the people's belief that man must completely immerse himself in God. A person's passion suggests that he is still in the power of demons who completely control him; he has not yet plunged his whole being into the waters of immortality and divine love, and has not attracted the favor of God to himself. If I had attracted him, I would have become dispassionate.
Probably someone will be surprised: “Can I really become dispassionate?” Certainly! Otherwise, for whom did Christ come into the world? Is it not for the sake of me and you, and all of us called to be His apostles? It is our duty to be dispassionate, otherwise we dishonor God Himself. And we don’t need to think that even in a passionate state we can be spiritually strong and close to God. If, having not yet freed ourselves from passions, we experience some kind of spiritual states, then they are fragile, and tomorrow we may find ourselves with nothing.
If passions and sinful inclinations are active in us, this means that the inner desire for sin is still alive in us, that danger lurks within us and awaits us at every step, which is why we easily fall into sins. The serpent nests in our very heart, and does not hide somewhere in the grass, as it was in ancient times in the Garden of Eden. We have not yet become children of God, have not been reborn spiritually, have not become worthy of the love of the Heavenly Father. If we have acquired dispassion, we thereby show that we honor God and desire to be His true children.
Although my passion brings me nothing but troubles, nevertheless I myself cannot get rid of it, dispassion is given to me by God, this is not my achievement. And in fact, can I eradicate passion in myself? Of course, I can refrain from idle talk and condemnation, remain silent when they beat me, humbly bow my head when I am offended, and not defend my rights. But I can’t overcome passion. After all, to do this you need to tear her out of the heart, and the heart is the deepest abyss into which only God can penetrate, my arms are too short for this. Only God, who is everywhere - on the tops of mountains, in the depths of seas and oceans, and in my own heart - can give me dispassion. I must only want and sincerely ask, because, as God’s brother James says, you do not receive because you ask incorrectly (see James 4:3). If I ask correctly and sincerely, then everything else is in God’s hands.
There is nothing more accessible to us than dispassion, and we, like some heretics, think that it is unattainable and impossible for us. Here we can see the machinations of Satan, who managed to pervert our thoughts and consciousness, managed to clip our wings, convincing us that we will never become dispassionate. Thus we remain in bondage to our flesh and to Satan. On the contrary, as soon as we confess with all our hearts that God has called each of us to dispassion, this immediately changes our entire life: the soul is filled with hope and heavenly joy, we feel inner space and freedom.
Such is our Orthodox faith, such is the patristic teaching, such is the true Christian consciousness. Why is this change happening to us? Because we begin to realize that we, the worst of all people, can become blameless and reverend, if only we want and ask God. You ask: “What if God demands from me ten, twenty, thirty or even seventy years of labor?” But what are seventy years in comparison with the eternity prepared for us? Just smoke, a dream [3, 246–248].
Blessed is the one who has achieved purity and dispassion in this life and in whose soul there is no trace left by enemies.
A person who has not acquired peace and dispassion in this life is worthy of regret. Instincts are raging inside him, sins against morality or sins arising from weak will, such as laziness, craving for sleep, gluttony, are rampant. It is clear that sleep is a sin of will, because the one who wants sleeps, and the one who wants is awake. A person who sleeps without measure is, as it were, not a person; it is as if he does not live, does not think, does not act. Hell rises from the depths of man, which is so terrible that you are amazed at the depth of the fall of man, the image of God.
On the contrary, one who achieves purity and dispassion is in joy, exultation, and peace.
Some people look at dispassion as something very scary and difficult. This special demon instills in us such a feeling in every way - and we give up. But it is for dispassion that we are created by God. Is it difficult for the grains of wheat you sow to grow into ears of corn? It is incomprehensible to us how this happens, but to God it is very easy. You sow and go away, rest all winter, and the wheat sprouts on its own. “The earth itself produces fruit,” says the parable of the Lord (see Mark 4:26–28). How do we perceive all this, how do we feel, how do we experience? Like something extremely difficult! [1, 369–370].
The mind must be deaf to the suggestions of the passions. Become deaf to what your passions tell you. To achieve dispassion, such a struggle and compliance with so many conditions are necessary that although we say that we will fulfill all this, we actually never dare to do it. After all, it will cost us dearly, and therefore we do not agree to it. For example, I decide to sleep on the floor and immediately hear an inner voice: “You won’t be able to sleep like that: you’ll toss and turn on your mat, you’ll suffer for an hour or two, and then you’ll be forced to sleep for a long time to make up for the lost sleep, whereas on the bed you’ll immediately You’ll fall asleep and two hours will be enough for you.” This idea seems common sense, but in fact it is suggested to us by our passion.
Your stomach hurts. And again you hear the same voice: “You need to get treatment. You spend time taking care of your stomach, why not devote that time to God? Have the operation - and after that you will be ready to give all your time to God. Besides, the money you spend on medicine will be given to the poor.” The passion of a person who wants to live without pain is manifested again.
I’m tired and say: “I’ll drink a little wine to cheer myself up.” In fact, my passion wants me to drink wine, and it’s not my health that requires it. So everything I think about, what I live, what I love, what I strive for, can be the dictates of passions.
I pray two, three, four times, but God does not answer me, no changes occur in me, I have no joy, and I say: “Maybe I should stop?” This thought is inspired in me by the passion for fame. If I attach even the slightest importance to my thoughts, he will continue: “Yes, it is possible that those who say that there is no God are right. However, no, this is too much, God exists. But those who claim that God is transcendental and has no connection with man are right.” All this seems quite natural to you, but in fact you become the prey of thoughts, or rather, of an evil demon, passion.
Passion can manifest itself at any moment. Let's identify it so that we know where what is happening to us begins. And we begin to see passions within ourselves when we remain silent and do not enter into conversations with them [1, 228–229].
Let's say I'm overwhelmed by bad thoughts. A visitor to the monastery comes up and asks: “Father, is it true that a monk can achieve a state of dispassion?” If, because of my disgusting state of mind, I answer him: “Unfortunate! Don’t believe any of this!” - at this moment, not one, but a thousand lightning bolts should strike my head. After all, the visitor came to find out not about what temptation I had, but about what the Church, Christ, says, as evidenced by my monastic image. So in my words there is betrayal. My inner state does not correspond to my true calling. And my calling is to be at the right hand of the Father, where Christ Himself has elevated me [2, 303].
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Simonopetra Monastery
Schema-Archimandrite Emilian Vafidis previously made several trips to the Holy Mountain. The elderly monks of the monastery of Simonopetra no longer had enough strength to maintain the monastery in proper order and invited the brethren to their permanent place of residence.
The brethren of the Transfiguration Monastery moved to Holy Athos in the fall of 1973.
The former abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Charalampius, peacefully departed to the Lord, so on November 25, a general decision was made by the old brethren to elect Emilian Vafidis as the new abbot.
Important! On December 17, 1973, the Holy Kinot of Athos officially enthroned or enthroned the new abbot.
The female monastic community of Meteor, which was under the patronage of Abbot Vafidis, was relocated to the monastic compound of Vatopedi, located under the protection of the monastery of Simonopetra.
Archimandrite Emilian is known as the founder or ktitor of the Ormilia monastery complex.
- The year 1980 was marked as a time of intensive construction; on September 14, Metropolitan Sinesius of Kassandra laid the first stone of the monastery church.
- 1982 was marked by the opening of the Center for Spiritual Support “Panagia Philanthropini”, which cares for the nuns of the convent.
- On October 25, 1991, the Annunciation Metochion was given the status of the Patriarchal Stauropegic Monastery.
- Until 1995, new buildings were erected in the Ormilia monastery.
Simonopetra Monastery on Holy Mount Athos, Greece
Under the guardianship of Elder Emilian Vafidis were the farmsteads of Simonopetra:
- Athenskoye Voznesenskoye;
- Thessalonian Saint Charalampios;
- St. Nicodemus, located in Igoumenitsa;
- French - Pokrovskoye, Preobrazhenskoye, St. Antonia.
Thanks to Abbot Simonopetra, an expert in monastic order and morals, the idiorhythmic way of life in the monasteries of Athos was transformed into a communal one.
Interesting! Periodically retiring into solitude and silence in caves, the elder was known as a practitioner of the Jesus Prayer.
In the summer of 1976, as part of a group of Svyatogorsk monks, the archimandrite visited Moscow for the first time.
In 1995, the health of Schema-Archimandrite Emilian Vafidis sharply deteriorated. On May 23, he preached for the last time at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. The abbot's staff was handed over to Archimandrite Elisha, Elder Emilian went to live at the monastery of Ormilius.
Archimandrite Emilian (Vafidis) and the revival of Greek monasticism.
At the origins of any monastery are its founders, the so-called ktitors. Their names are commemorated every day, and they come first in synodics. In the same way, the soul of any cenobitic monastery is its elder. All the monks entrust their lives into his hands; in his face they see God. The blessing of the elder is the force that holds the community together.
Archimandrite Emilian is the spiritual director of several monasteries. First of all, this is the Simonopetra monastery on Mount Athos and the Ormilia convent on the Chalkidiki peninsula.
Alexander Vafidis - this is the secular name of the elder - was born in 1934 in the Athens suburb of Nicaea Piraeus. His grandfather and grandmother were natives of Pontus and after the Asia Minor catastrophe in the 20s they ended up in Greece. From childhood, under the influence of his pious grandparents, Alexander had a desire to devote himself to God.
Alexander received his higher education at the University of Athens, where he studied first at the Faculty of Law, then at the Faculty of Theology. While studying with a group of like-minded friends, Alexander launched serious activities in organizing catechetical work, holding conversations and other events. It was then that his mental, spiritual, administrative and organizational abilities manifested themselves.
In 1960, Alexander came to the city of Trikala and entrusted himself to the spiritual guidance of Metropolitan Dionysius of Trikka and Stagon. Metropolitan Dionysius in the same year tonsured the young man into monasticism with the name Emilian, soon ordained him a deacon, and in 1961 a priest.
After his priestly consecration, Father Emilian settled in the Dusikou monastery, where he remained in solitude for four months. In this deserted place he lived in complete silence, with all zeal seeking God, “who saves from cowardice and from storms.” The Lord heeded his prayers, and, appearing to His servant, opened to him the “path of life.” After this revelation, Father Emilian turned with all his soul to the monastic life. Seeing before him the ruins of monasticism in his native Greece, he boldly dreamed of its revival and renewal.
Metropolitan Dionysius of Triki, who also passionately loved monasticism, at the end of 1961 recalled Father Emilian from Dusikou and appointed him abbot to the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Velikiye Meteora. At first Abbot Emilian was the only resident there. Soon the Metropolitan elevated him to the rank of archimandrite and entrusted him with the ministry of preacher and confessor, and also entrusted him with the work of caring for the youth of the diocese. From then until his illness, the elder served daily.
At the door of the confessional he was always surrounded by many young people and children, for whose sake he spared no labor and time. Thus began a new period in the life of Elder Emilian. He was no longer alone, he became a father to many “sons and daughters” of God. He devoted his life to his spiritual children with complete freedom, never expecting the slightest reward or reciprocal feeling. Among his many disciples there were those who decided to devote themselves to monastic life. Over time, they formed the original core of the brotherhood in Great Meteora. The elder himself recalled it this way: “As a confessor in Meteora, I watched how the Lord providentially sent me several young people... You should have seen them! While still small children, they ascended to Meteora at twelve at night, at one, two, so that their absence would not be noticed by their parents, the police...
First of all, when they arrived at the monastery, they took rosaries and prayer books, climbed the mountain near our monastery, and there they prayed with the rosary, experiencing some mystical experience of communion with Christ. We witnessed real miracles taking place in their souls, we saw the renewal, the change that the right hand of the Almighty undoubtedly wrought in them.”
In 1963, the first two monks settled in Great Meteora. In 1965-1966 Many graduates of the gymnasium became novices of Father Emilian. On August 6, 1966, Metropolitan Dionysius tonsured Father Emilian into the Great Schema.
From the very beginning of his life in Meteora, Father Emilian established spiritual connections with contemporary ascetics in Greece and Serbia, and also began making pilgrimage trips to the Holy Mountain. He met the Monk Paisius and, having climbed almost to the top of Mount Athos, met Father Ephraim of Katunak. From then on, a special spiritual connection was established between him and Father Ephraim, about which the latter often said: “I found my elder whom I had lost, another elder Joseph, the golden-mouthed and venerable father Emilian.”
In 1968, the first young novices were tonsured in Velikiye Meteora, and in 1972 the sisterhood began its life, settling in the monastery of St. Theodores near Meteora.
In January 1970, Metropolitan Dionysius unexpectedly reposed in the Lord. Wanting to find a more suitable place for monastic residence, the brotherhood of the Great Meteora moved in 1973 to the Simonopetra monastery on Athos. This was facilitated by the persistent requests of the inhabitants of Simonopetra, who suffered from the small number of brethren. Since the place of abbot was empty after the death of Archimandrite Charalampius, on November 23, 1973, the former brethren of the Simonopetra monastery, in accordance with the Svyatogorsk rules, elected Father Emilian as abbot. On December 17, he was enthroned by the Holy Kinot.
What happened in Meteora? The once secluded and inaccessible rocks have become accessible to tourists, thanks to good roads in the mountains and steps leading to hermitages, which have replaced the ancient lifts and rope ladders. Let’s give the floor to Elder Emilian: “Soon, with the increase in the brethren and the massive wave of tourism in Meteora, I was forced to interrupt my communication with young people... My strength was only enough to preserve the monks in the conditions of the avalanche of tourism that overwhelmed us, which threatened to drown our souls. It was impossible for the monks to stay on Meteora... They dreamed of a quiet refuge..."
After establishing the brotherhood on the Holy Mountain, the elder took care of the improvement of the sisterhood in a fatherly way, which moved on July 5, 1974 to Ormylia in Chalkidiki. There, from the Vatopedi monastery, the Simonopetra monastery bought the old Annunciation monastery, which became the Simonopetra monastery.
Elder Emilian took on enormous labors and endured many sorrows for the sake of restoring this courtyard. Everything had to start from scratch. In order for the sisters to be able to lead a solitary monastic life, Father Emilian began in 1980, with the help of believers, the construction of monastery buildings. About fifteen years later, a large communal monastery grew up on the destroyed courtyard. On September 14, 1980, Metropolitan Synesius of Kassandra founded the monastery cathedral in Ormylia. On October 25, 1991, the metochion acquired the status of the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery.
The elder devoted all the strength of his soul to spiritual service, being the father of the brotherhood of Simonopetra and the sisterhood of Ormilia. At the same time, he did not abandon the solitude and silence of monastic life. However, his love for the people of God and for the Church forced him from time to time to respond to invitations from diocesan bishops and other persons and to hold conversations or participate in theological and monastic congresses in Greece and other countries.
“Always seeing the Lord before him,” the elder accepted any difficulties freely and naturally, with absolute calm and joy, as God’s blessing.
From the beginning of 1995, a serious illness forced Elder Emilian to gradually withdraw from his abbot duties and leave the Holy Mountain. In 2000, the elder handed over the abbot's staff to the current abbot of the Simonopetra monastery, Archimandrite Elisha, who continues his work with filial devotion. Elder Emilian himself retired to the Ormilia monastery.
Here is one of the elder’s stories about himself: “When I was little, I had a lively character, and my grandmother, as a teacher, often reminded me: “Alexander, the more you are silent, the more God will speak inside you.” And now the elder is simply silent, listening to the voice of God.
The time of the elder's abbess at the Simonopetra monastery is considered one of the blessed periods of its modern history. It was during this period that the entire Holy Mountain, under the patronage of the Mother of God, was filled with monks and came into a flourishing state. As the elder himself says, “the monastic brotherhood of the Kinovia, living in its own rhythm, lives essentially in the Church and for the Church as the heart or another member of its body, and is assessed not by the scope of external activity, but mainly by its zealous search for God. This is how monks achieve godlikeness by attracting others to the Divine life.”
Sources:
1. Archimandrite Emilian (Vafidis). Interpretation of the ascetic words of Abba Isaiah. – M.: Zachatievsky stauropegial female. monastery; Ekaterinburg: Publishing house of Alexander Nevsky Novotikhvinsky women. Monastery, 2014. – 576 p. // Hieromonk Serapion. The life path of Elder Emilian.
2. Achimandrite Emilian. Words and instructions. T.1-2.—M.: Publishing house of the Church of St. Martyr Tatiana, 2006. – 560 p. //Speeches on the abbot’s installation, which took place in the Simonopetra monastery on Athos.
3. Ormilia. Guide.
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