Christos Klavas,
Theologian, Sociologist, Chanter
Theologian, Sociologist, Chanter
It is an indisputable fact that even in more recent times, closer to us, the Orthodox Church continues to bring forth saints. This admission is of great significance for contemporary man who, perhaps more than in any other era, has need of hope as well as lofty ideals.
A contemporary sanctified figure is, among many others, Saint Anthimos of Chios, whose life constitutes a model of spirituality and philanthropy.
Born in Chios on July 1, 1869, Argyrios Vagianos (his name in the world) grew up in an environment of deep faith and piety. He did not receive much formal education, although he was endowed with remarkable natural gifts. On August 23, 1889, at the age of 20, he visited the Sacred Skete of the Holy Fathers in order to deliver to the monastery’s icon workshop the icon of Panagia Voitheia (the Helper), which he had received as an heirloom from his ancestors. This visit became the occasion for him to make the great decision to enter the ranks of the monks and submit to the Elder Pachomios, "renowned for his virtue.”[1] This was the elder who taught the ascetical, neptic tradition to Saint Nektarios of Aegina, Bishop of Pentapolis.[2] Consequently, Saint Anthimos and Saint Nektarios were disciples of the same spiritual teacher; they were spiritual brothers, flowers that sprang from the same root.
Obedience, fasting, virginity, prayer, and above all humility became for the young monk weapons against the devil, whose attacks were indeed relentless. His support was She into whose hands he entrusted his entire life — the Panagia Voitheia! From her icon, during one of the furious assaults of the evil one, the voice was heard:
“Depart, beasts, from my little monk.”[3]
His struggles did not leave the people of Chios unmoved; in the person of Anthimos they envisioned their spiritual support. They asked for his ordination to the priesthood, a request which the then Metropolitan of Chios rejected because of his insufficient secular education. Eventually, God’s providence brought him to Adramyttium in Asia Minor and from there to Magnesia, where he was ordained deacon and presbyter. The preserved written description by an eyewitness causes awe and emotion:
“At the very moment when the congregation responded ‘Axios’, a powerful earthquake shook the church to its foundations. The oil lamps swayed wildly together… The sky darkened — the universe was disturbed! Thunder, lightning, a deluge… But suddenly everything stopped! The cosmic upheaval became boundless calm and Papa-Anthimos wept… wept….”[4]
These divine signs, expressions of God’s pleasure in His worthy priest, show the distance between human judgment and God’s judgment. Human superficial evaluation focuses on worldly criteria, whereas divine judgment centers on spiritual, inner, and higher values.
The plots of the devil pursued him there as well, stirring the envy of his fellow presbyters. Soon he was forced, after a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, to take the road back to his homeland. From this point onward two would be the great stations of his life: the leper hospital of Chios and the founding of the women’s monastery dedicated to Panagia Voitheia. There his gifts would shine even more intensely and his heart full of love for God and man would be revealed. By his own initiative he became the shepherd of the lepers, without the slightest hesitation before the danger of the highly contagious disease, since “there is no fear in love; perfect love casts out fear.”[5]
For the socially excluded lepers he became a guardian angel, doctor, protector, friend, comforter, hope within despair. The leper hospital of Chios, from a place of misery and sin, became a healing place of souls and a source of sanctification, as “former blasphemers, quarrelsome, shouting and abusive, even demonized persons were transformed into gentle lambs… they prayed, confessed, approached the Holy Chalice, and many were tonsured monks.”[6] As a fruit of this blessed effort blossomed Saint Nikephoros the Leper, his spiritual disciple and companion for 43 whole years.[7] For the nuns uprooted by the Asia Minor Catastrophe he was savior, father, and model of ascetic monastic life. In a place where once lived women immersed in debauchery, a Parthenon (house of virgins) was built, with the manifest help of the Panagia.
Saint Anthimos is, in our judgment, also a great modern confessor. Both through his ascetical struggles and especially through his insistence on building the women’s monastery of Panagia Voitheia he confessed the importance of Orthodox monasticism. Many criticized him for his attachment to hesychasm and even sought to demolish the monastery being erected. The arguments of the opponents, as preserved in the press of the time,[8] reveal ignorance and a superficial disparagement of Orthodox monasticism as an outdated institution. For them it would have been preferable to build some charitable institution that would relieve human suffering rather than a monastery. Yet the perseverance of the experienced ascetic was vindicated, since his monastery, continuing the Orthodox tradition, was revealed as a healing place of both psychic and bodily illnesses. In such an environment our Saint, struggling, contributed greatly to the revival of Chian monasticism locally and, more broadly, to stirring interest in the patristic ascetic inheritance.
Saint Anthimos, joining the choir of the newly-revealed fathers of our Church, reminds us in the most tangible way that Orthodox asceticism and philanthropy are two sides of the same coin. He further reminds us that the health of the ecclesiastical body is reflected in its monasteries, which, when they follow the handed-down and time-tested neptic experience, become lungs that give life to the people of God. The blessed land of Chios — the land watered with the blood of martyrs and heroes — has given even in modern times a great spiritual stature to all Orthodoxy. Saint Anthimos, the local and universal Saint, may he be a model for us all.
Footnotes:
[1] Monk Theoklitos Dionysiatis, Saint Anthimos of Chios the Wonderworker (Life-Miracles-Teachings) 1869-1960, 2nd ed., Sacred Monastery of Panagia Voitheia of Chios, p. 28.
[2] Charokopos N. Antonios, Elder Pachomios: Founder of the Sacred Skete of the Holy Fathers of Chios (1839-1905), Athens 2003, pp. 119-127.
[3] Monk Theoklitos Dionysiatis, Saint Anthimos of Chios…, p. 38.
[4] Monk Theoklitos Dionysiatis, Saint Anthimos of Chios…, p. 45.
[5] 1 John 4:18.
[6] Charokopos N. Antonios, Saint Anthimos of Chios (1869-1960), 2nd ed., Sacred Monastery of Panagia Voitheia of Chios, Chios 2003, p. 43.
[7] Monk Simon, Saint Nikephoros the Leper, Saceed Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, June 2013.
[8] Monk Theoklitos Dionysiatis, Saint Anthimos of Chios…, pp. 79-88; Charokopos N. Antoniou, Saint Anthimos of Chios (1869-1960), pp. 57-61.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
