Elder Porfiry Kavsokalivit: biography, instructions, miracles

Porfiry (Bairaktaris) Kavsokalivit
(1906 - 1991), archimandrite, venerable Commemoration of November 19 (Greek [1], Romanian) and in the Cathedral of Euboean Saints

In the world, Evangel Bayraktaris (Ευάγγελος Μπαϊρακτάρης), was born on February 7, 1906 in the village of Agios Ioannis near the city of Karist on the island of Euboea, Greece. His parents were poor, pious peasants. He received his education in two classes of an elementary rural school. Since childhood, he helped his parents do housework: herd sheep, work in the garden. At the age of eight he went to work in a coal mine and then behind a store counter.

Already in adolescence, he was overcome by the desire to devote his life to monastic deeds. Having read the life of St. John Kushchnik, he was so inspired by the life of the saint that he decided to imitate him. At the age of 13, he secretly went to Athos from his parents. There he gave himself into obedience to two virtuous and spiritually experienced elders who lived in the St. George's cell in Kafsokalyvia belonging to the Great Lavra. He lived in Kavsokalyvia as a novice for six years.

One morning he was sent to chop wood for the stove. In their search, the young novice reached a ravine, which was quite far from the monastery of Kavsokalivia, in which he then lived with his elders. When the boy began to chop wood, an accident happened to him: the handle of the ax fell off, and the blade pierced his leg, seriously injuring it. Blood gushed from the wound. There was no one nearby, and the boy was doomed to death from loss of blood. Feeling mortal danger, with all his might he began to loudly call for help to the Mother of God: “Most Holy Theotokos, help me!” And the blood stopped immediately. Soon after this, he became a monk with the name Nikita [2].

The young man wanted to work on Mount Athos all his life, but at the age of 19 he received pneumonia, which turned into pleurisy. The elders ordered him to leave Athos and go for treatment. Having completed a course of treatment and feeling better, he returned to the place of his tonsure. However, the illness made itself felt again, and the elders, seeing that the Athonite climate could kill their student, sent him back without blessing him to return to the Holy Mountain.

So, at the age of 19, he was forced to return to Euboea and first labored in the monastery of the holy martyr Haralampios in Avlonari, and then in the monastery of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Ano-Vathea.

At the age of 21 [3] he was ordained hieromonk by Archbishop Porfiry III of Sinai, who gave him his name.

Soon, despite the priest’s young age, Metropolitan Panteleimon of Karista appointed Father Porfiry as the monastery confessor. Father Porfiry carried out this obedience in the monastery of St. Charalampios until 1940. Many of the surrounding residents turned to him, lines of people waited for their turn, confessions lasted for hours without a break.

In 1938 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1940, he was appointed rector of the Church of St. Gerasimos at the Athens Polyclinic near Omonia Square. During the thirty-three years of his ministry in this place, Father Porfiry helped thousands of people find spiritual peace, many of them, by the grace of God, he healed from various kinds of illnesses.

After retiring in 1973, he continued to serve and confess in the ancient abandoned church of St. Nicholas in the Pendeli area.

In 1978, he had a heart attack, he lived for several months with his friends in Athens, after which in 1979 he settled in the Milesi area, where he founded the hesychastirium of the Transfiguration of the Lord - a large courtyard with a temple. The construction of the courtyard buildings began in 1983 and construction occurred gradually [4].

Father Porfiry never gave up hope of returning back to Athos. When in 1984 he learned that the last inhabitant of his native St. George’s cell had left it and gone to live in a monastery, he hurried to the Holy Mountain, to the Kavsokalivsky monastery.

By that time, cases of the elder’s clairvoyance and healings through his prayer had become known. People from different parts of Greece sought his advice and blessing. At the end of the 1980s, with his blessing, a monastery was created in Kalamos in the name of St. Simeon the New Theologian [5].

Died on December 2, 1991. At the request of the elder, a grave was dug for him not far from his cell. On the last night of his earthly life, the elder confessed, after which the disciples began to read the canon on the outcome of the soul, and then, according to the rosary, the cell rule of the great schema-monk. The last words of the elder were the gospel lines: “Let them all be one” (John 17:21). Then, barely audible, he whispered: “Come,” and breathed his last.

Grades and esteem

Speaking about the spiritual gifts of Elder Porfiry, the famous Greek Elder Paisios Svyatorets said: “He has a color TV, but I only have black and white.”

On November 27, 2013, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople decided on his canonization with the establishment of memory on the day of his repose on December 2. Art. [6]. By the synodal decision of July 4-5, 2021, his memory was also included in the monthly calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Criticism

Published in 2006 in Russian, the book “Elder Porfiry Kavsokalivit.
Life and Words” [7] was sharply criticized by Professor A.I. Osipova [8]. Among other things, Prof. Osipov quotes the words of Elder Porfiry, cited in the indicated book: two paths lead us to God: the harsh and tedious path, with harsh battles against evil, and the easy path through love.
Many people chose the harsh path, and “shed their blood to receive the Spirit,” until they achieved great virtue. I find that the shortest and surest path is the path of love. Follow them too... Don’t fight to drive out the darkness from the cage of your soul. Make a small hole to let the light in and the darkness will disappear. The same applies to passions and infirmities. Do not fight with them, but transform them into strength, despising evil... There is no need to be afraid of the devil, or hell - nothing. Love for Christ must reign... Leave all your weaknesses so that the opposing spirit does not find out about them and begins to torment you and plunge you into despondency. Don’t make any effort to free yourself from them... And don’t say: “My God, free me from this and that,” for example, from anger, melancholy. It is not good to pray or think about any particular passion... Do not fight temptation directly, do not ask for it to go away, do not say: “Take it away, my God!” [9]

Next, Prof. Osipov notes:

The Lord commands to fight sin to the point of bleeding (Mark 9:43-47). During Great Lent, the Church calls with prostrations to pray for cleansing from idleness, despondency, covetousness, idle talk, condemnation... True love for God and neighbor is acquired only through the struggle with passions, infirmities, temptations, through the fulfillment of God’s commandments and repentance, that is, all that which is opposed to the “easy way” through love.

Perhaps Saint Isaac the Syrian answers this question with the greatest accuracy and power. He decisively condemned the unreasonableness of the desire for love of an ascetic who did not overcome his passions through severe battles against evil:

“There is no way to awaken Divine love in the soul... if it has not overcome passions. You said that your soul did not overcome passions and loved the love of God; and there is no order in this. Whoever says that he has not overcome passions and has loved the love of God, I don’t know what he is saying. But you will say: I did not say “I love,” but “I loved love.” And this does not take place if the soul has not achieved purity. If you want to say this only for the word, then you are not the only one saying, but everyone says that they want to love God... And everyone pronounces this word as his own, however, when pronouncing such words, only the tongue moves, but the soul does not feel that speaks"

Of interest is the report of Athanasios N. Papathanasiou, Doctor of Theology, editor-in-chief of the journal Synaxis, dedicated to the personality of Elder Porfirios [10].
In particular, it says: ... Elder Porfiry did not leave almost a single written source. We have at our disposal testimonies of people, eyewitness accounts, which, naturally, are very contradictory. Some of them capture the elder’s judgments, others the opinions that he expressed out of condescension towards people, and thirdly, and worst of all, Porfiry’s words are refracted in such a way as to confirm the beliefs of the narrator himself! There is nothing we can do about this at the moment other than doing respectful theological work that could perhaps lead to the truth in time...

Elder Porfiry completely disagreed with waging a frontal battle against evil. He believed that the object to which you direct your mind, to which you direct your strength, will determine your existence, whether it is about what you love or about what you hate. Undoubtedly, the elder was convinced that the life of a Christian consists of counteracting the works of Satan, but he categorically insisted that the person himself must turn to Christ, to His love and light. This light and its spread drives away darkness, not the fight against darkness as such. Directly fighting the darkness introduces the darkness with which he is supposed to be fighting!..

His position regarding the problem that worried many in Greece was fundamental: the question of the number 666 and the Antichrist. Elder Porfiry refused to place the Antichrist at the center of his concerns. He insisted that the power of the "seal" lies not in the mechanical use of numbers and symbols, but in whoever the human heart accepts as its master...

Elder Porfiry, obviously, was not a public theologian. He was, as I said, a gardener doing grafting, i.e. bucer; and as such it brings in key criteria. His sober meekness is radically different from the almost offensive delirium of zealous aggressiveness that flourishes in our time under the pretext of defending the faith. “In our missionary zeal,” he said, “let us be unobtrusive... A few words... The best mission is our good example, our love, our meekness.” Evidence shows that Elder Porfiry did not invade a person’s personal space. He did not talk about God unless asked, and was in no hurry to sprinkle holy water on everyone present when he was not sure that they wanted it...

The elder had the deepest respect for liturgical life and its sanctifying power. However, in a completely childish way, he once expressed his disagreement with Saint Andrew of Crete, since in his main creation, the Great Canon, a mournful gaze, turned to the underworld, to death, prevails, while Porphyry himself preferred to turn his gaze to the love of Christ. When his interlocutor cited, in contrast to his words, an example from the Canon, where Saint Andrew talks about St. Ignatius the God-Bearer (the saint who expressed his fiery love for Christ), Father Porfiry said a wonderful phrase: “Oh, this is no longer the Canon, this is fire. The Songwriter has disappeared in this Canon! Saint Ignatius swallowed him up and demolished him.”

Miracles

The Lord rewarded Father Porfiry Kavsokalivit with an abundance of spiritual gifts. Meekness, love for people and God, insight, the power of prayer for the healing of soul and body - all this was inherent in the elder. With one touch of his, many got rid of serious illnesses that had tormented them for years.

Gift of finding water

The elder was very close to nature and felt its beauty and depth like no one else. He understood the language of birds, and he could read the depths of the earth and the abysses of the sea like an open book. One day, residents of a mountain village turned to him for help because they could not find a place where they could dig a well. We contacted various authorities, but everyone unanimously insisted that there was no groundwater in these places. To meet their needs, the villagers had to collect precipitation after the rain, which is how they survived.

Icon of Saint Porphyry Kavsokalivit

One person, who was the spiritual child of Elder Porfiry and knew about his amazing abilities, including finding water deep underground, asked for help in this situation. The elder answered without hesitation that in the area where the village was located there was a lot of good water, and immediately pointed out on the map where to look. At the request of people, he himself went to this place and determined exactly where to drill a well.

Gift of Serendipity

Mother o. Porphyria was very ill and had been in the Athens hospital for several days. The doctors gave a good prognosis and promised to discharge me in a few days. The brother, who visited his mother, called Fr. Porfiry with the good news of a speedy recovery. But then, after a short time, there was a call back, this time from Father Porfiry. He told his brother that he needed to hurry, his mother was about to die and they would not have time to take her blessing.

At first he didn’t believe it, but he listened to the elder, and both hurried to the hospital. What happened was what Fr warned about. Porfiry. The brothers barely had time to say goodbye to their mother when she died. Thus, the Lord once again confirmed the gift of clairvoyance in his chosen one.

Gift of Healing

One day a doctor and his wife came to the elder for spiritual advice. After talking with the priest, the married couple soon began to say goodbye. The elder, smiling in a fatherly way, took the woman by the hand, right in the place where she was in severe pain. He did not know about this because he was not told about it. The woman was treated for a long time with injections and various anti-inflammatory drugs, but nothing helped.

When the elder touched, warmth spread throughout the patient’s body, which removed the pain from her body. Tears of joy and gratitude to the elder for the mercy appeared in the woman’s eyes. From that day on, she no longer resorted to the help of drugs or doctors.

Prayers

Troparion, tone 8

Living with apostolic zeal / and constantly calling on the name of Christ, preaching the love of God to everyone, / you remained in that place, healing many souls and leading to the Risen One. Moreover, having inherited the villages of the saints, / strive and instruct us, so that we too may come into the arms of God, / joyfully crying out: // Rejoice, O Reverend Father Porphyry.

Kontakion, tone 3

Rejoice, Athos the humble sheep, / Porfiry, preacher of love, / glory to the monks, fertilizer to the saints. To one was given the word of wisdom by the Spirit, to another the word of reason and the action of strength, but to you all was revealed, as if it were the secret place of God’s grace.

Biography

Elder Porfirios, in the world Evangelos Bairaktaris, was born on February 7, 1906 in Greece, in the village of St. John Caroustia, in the province of Evia. His parents were poor, pious peasants. Evangelos received his education in two classes of a rural primary school. Since childhood, he helped his parents with the housework: herding sheep, working in the garden. At the age of 8, the boy went to work in a coal mine and then behind a store counter.

In his early youth, Evangelos read the life of St. John Kushchnik. It made such a strong impression on him that he secretly went to Holy Mount Athos from his parents. There Evangelos gave himself into obedience to two virtuous and spiritually experienced elders who lived in St. George's cell in Kafsokalyvia.

One morning they sent him to chop wood for the stove. In their search, the young novice reached a ravine, which was quite far from the monastery of Kavsokalivia, in which he then lived with his elders. When the boy began to chop wood, an accident happened to him: the handle of the ax fell off, and the blade pierced his leg, seriously injuring it. Blood gushed from the wound. There was no one nearby, and, without a doubt, the boy should have died from loss of blood. Feeling mortal danger, with all his might he began to loudly call for help to the Mother of God: “Most Holy Theotokos, help me!” And the blood stopped immediately.

Soon Evangelos became a monk with the name Nikita. One day, having come to church early, he stood in a dark corner and prayed. At that moment, Monk Demetrius, a 90-year-old Russian elder, entered the temple. Looking around and not noticing anyone, he began to pray, making prostrations. During the elder’s prayer, such grace shone upon him that he stood in the middle of the temple without touching the floor. The divine grace poured out on the holy elder also touched the young monk Nikita. On the way back to the cell, after receiving the Holy Mysteries, the heart of Father Nikita was filled with such joy and love for God that, raising his hands to the sky, he loudly exclaimed: “Glory to Thee, God! Glory to You, God! Glory to You, God!”

He wanted to labor on Mount Athos all his life, but the Lord decreed otherwise. Nineteen-year-old Nikita received pneumonia, which turned into pleurisy. The elders ordered him to leave Athos and go for treatment. After completing a course of treatment and feeling better, he returned to the place of his tonsure. However, the illness made itself felt again, and the elders, seeing that the Athonite climate could kill their student, sent him back without blessing him to return to the Holy Mountain.

So, at the age of 19, Father Nikita left Athos and settled in the monastery of St. Charalampios in Levkona, not far from his native village. At the age of 21, Nikita was ordained a priest by Archbishop Porfiry III of Sinai, who gave him his name. Soon, despite the priest’s young age, Metropolitan Panteleimon of Karista appointed Father Porfiry as the monastery confessor. Father Porfiry carried out this obedience in the monastery of St. Charalampia until 1940. Many of the surrounding residents turned to him, seeking healing for their spiritual wounds. Father Porfiry tirelessly served God and people. Lines of people waited for their turn, as confessions lasted for hours without a break. And so it went on day after day. For his tireless work in 1938, Father Porfiry received the rank of archimandrite.

In 1940, Father Porfiry came to Athens, where he was appointed parish priest in the Church of St. Gerasimos at the Athens hospital. During the thirty-three years of his ministry in this place, Father Porfiry helped thousands of people find spiritual peace, many of them, by the grace of God, he healed from various kinds of illnesses.

After retiring, Father Porfiry continued to serve and confess in the ancient abandoned church of St. Nicholas in the Pendeli area until 1978. When he had a heart attack, he lived with his friends in Athens for several months, after which in 1979 he settled in the Milesi area, where he built a large courtyard with a temple in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Father Porfiry never gave up hope of returning back to Athos. When in 1984 he learned that the last inhabitant of his native St. George’s cell had left it and gone to live in a monastery, he hurried to the Holy Mountain. The Lord fulfilled the cherished desire of His faithful servant, and the elder spent the last two years of his life on Athos.

At this time, he often talked about how he would give an answer at the Last Judgment. I recalled a story from the patericon in which one elder, feeling the approach of death, prepared a grave for himself and said to his disciple: “My son, the stones are slippery and the path is steep, you may get hurt if you decide to carry my body to the grave. Let's go there while I can still walk." The disciple, supporting the elder by the arm, led him to the grave. The elder lay down in the prepared grave and gave up his soul to God.

At the request of the elder, a grave was dug for him not far from his cell. On the last night of his earthly life, the elder confessed, after which the disciples began to read the canon on the outcome of the soul, and then, according to the rosary, the cell rule of the great schema-monk.

The last words of the elder were the gospel lines: “Let them all be one.” Then, barely audible, he whispered: “Come,” and breathed his last. The Lord took his bright soul at 4:31 am on December 2, 1991.