By Fr. George Dorbarakis
The blessed elder Iakovos Tsalikes fell asleep in the Lord on November 21, 1991, the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos, while he was hearing the confession of a believer.
Elder Iakovos, abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Venerable David the Elder in Evia, was a rare personality who, during his lifetime, was the support and hope for thousands of people around the world. He was literally what our Church calls an “Elder,” that is, a spiritual guide, a charismatic leader, who opens roads and paths, where human logic is unable to provide any explanation. Thousands of people have numerous testimonies to give regarding the resolution of their various problems, which referred not only to the sphere of their spiritual life, but also to their everyday life and immediacy.
What was it that made the blessed elder have these abilities? Was it some special psyche or some other natural qualities? Certainly not. The answer lies in what constituted a qualification of every saint of every era in our Church: the grace of God. In other words, Father Iakovos, we are certain, was a divine man, a graceful soul who was richly irrigated by the graces of the Holy Spirit. This presence of the Spirit of God within him made him discern the otherwise indiscernable problems of people. For it is a common belief of our Church that, when the Spirit of God illuminates people, then they acquire the virtue of discernment, which enables them to directly discern good from evil, divine energy from demonic energy.
Thus, everyone who met with him left with the certainty that they had met a man of God, that the answer he gave to a problem they had was His answer, that the word he addressed to them was a greeting of God’s grace. That is why tranquility and peace of conscience were the elements that each pilgrim of the Monastery gained.
Of course, we have no reason to doubt what the Elder was saying, when the pilgrims excitedly reported to him the good results of their visit. “Venerable David did it, my child.” But in order for the Saint to act in such a direct way each time, he had to be “pressed” in some way, by someone’s prayer, which had great power. And this was Elder Iakovos. Everyone knew how much the blessed abbot had open communication with Venerable David, God, and the other Saints. He would especially speak to Venerable David, as one speaks to one's best friend. And the answer would most often come immediately.
I personally remember - when several years ago I had the special blessing from God to dine with him and others - the case of a lady who told us about it. She had called in distress because she had lost her jewelry that was worth a fortune. Her despair led her to seek refuge in Father Iakovos. And he did not refuse to help God's creature. He went to the icon of Venerable David in the temple and explained the problem to him. However, he told him, so that he would know whether he should continue praying about this matter, to have the answer quickly. He even set a limit for him: “Before I go to my cell, let the lady call to say she found the jewelry. Otherwise, I will know that I should not insist on the request.” Indeed, before he entered his cell, the lady called and, crying, thanked God and Father Iakovos for finding her jewelry. We will not mention many other similar cases – written about in the books that have already been published about him – except for two more, which I happened to be present at and which reveal the Elder’s clairvoyant gift and the power of his prayer.
The first incident. At the table where we were eating, there was also a young theologian, D.K., with his family. This theologian professor, a man of true faith and God’s grace, was then thinking of becoming a clergyman. The Elder was meeting him for the first time. So he asked who he was. They told him and he pointed out: “I don’t know how you see him, but I see him differently.” He did not stop talking about the good heart of the young theologian until the end of the meal. Apparently the Elder already saw him in the form of a clergyman (note: he has already become, many years ago, a priest), which is why he said that he sees him differently.
The clairvoyance and foresight that he had is confirmed by other similar testimonies, because he himself had confided to spiritual people who visited him that God gave him the ability to see people according to their psychic state: black, if they were unrepentant, white if they were repentant.
The second incident. In the monastery where I was that day, and in fact in the courtyard outside the temple, I saw a man in pajamas and on crutches, because his leg had been amputated. This man, seeing me as a priest, called me, and when I approached him, he began to reveal to me the great miracle that had happened to him. That is, while he had a large wound on his amputated leg that would not close, despite all the various medical attempts, during his last visit to the hospital, when it had been decided to have surgery, and after he had visited Venerable David and had received the blessing of Elder Iakovos, the doctor noticed with surprise that the wound had already closed in an inexplicable way, as if a very important and precise operation had been performed. “Not even Cooley in America could close it like that,” were the doctor’s words, which the man repeated to me. The doctor, of course, as well as the patient, could not explain the incident, and they considered it a miracle. The patient felt so much gratitude to Venerable David and Father Iakovos that he took a taxi from Athens where he was (the hospital of the Holy Anargyroi), and came directly in his pajamas to the Monastery.
It is self-evident that the many gifts of Elder Iakovos were not given to him by God by chance. In order to reach the point of so much love for his fellow men, he was preceded by harsh asceticism, abstinence in everything, observance of the holy commandments of the Lord, guarding his mind and heart from every passionate thought, and indeed from a young age. Because, according to the spiritual tradition of our Church, if a person is not cleansed by asceticism from all evil and false passion, he cannot reach the point of illumination and subsequently his theosis. Thus, we can say that the love of the blessed father for his fellow men was the expression of the love of God, Who lived intensely in his heart. That is, he cleansed the field of his heart, as much as was humanly possible, of all kinds of weeds, so that the grace of God found suitable soil to bear fruit in virtues, and especially love.
We are therefore certain that even now, where he is in the eternal mansions, close to his beloved Lord, he does not cease to intercede for us, perhaps more actively and effectively than while he was alive. For “love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8). May we have his blessing now and always.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
