1. The Holy Elder Cleopa Ilie of Sihastria used to say:
“Do you know who the Mother of our Lord is, and how much she loves, and how great her power is, and how great her mercy is? She is our Mother, who has mercy on the poor and the widows and all the other Christians. She always prays to the Savior Christ for all of us.”
2. Considering his healing as a small child, it is not surprising that Constantine [secular name of Elder Cleopa] developed a great devotion to the Mother of God at an early age. By the time he was eleven years old, he could sing the Akathist Hymn by heart. He would later tell the story of how he learned this ancient and poetic prayer:
“When I shucked corn in the field I would hide the prayer book under the husks until father would come with the horse-cart. During this time I would learn one more oikos and one more kontakion. And, lo and behold, I learned the entire Akathist to the Mother of God.”
3. Elder Cleopa recounted the following incident from the time he was living in a small hut in the wilderness:
“One time, at midnight, I was reading my prayer rule and was at the Akathist to the Protection of the Mother of God. All of a sudden a strong rumbling began. ‘My,’ I said, ‘it’s a big earthquake!’ When I opened the door a little, I saw a large wheel as big as the spruce tree and some hideous creatures all around it with pitchforks of fire. One of them said, ‘This is the abbot of Sihastria! Put him on the wheel.’ And immediately I found myself on the wheel. The wheel was turning and they stood ready with their pitchforks so that, if I fell, I would be impaled on their pitchforks. But I had the Akathist book with me and I said, ‘Get out of my way! Because I have documents from the Mother of God!’ Then I no longer saw the wheel or anything, and I came to myself in the hut.”
4. Each day Father Cleopa would read the Akathist to the Protection of the Mother of God. One day, upon opening the book to read, he sensed a fragrance that smelled like lilies and roses. He then prayed to God to remove this fragrance and didn’t read the Akathist for a while, realizing that the fragrance was a temptation from the enemy in order to throw him into pride. He would say, “When you pray, it is not good to receive any kind of smell or sensory impressions, because then the demons can come and throw you into pride.” When he resumed the reading of the Akathist, he no longer smelled the fragrance. Thus was he delivered from the temptation.
5. Almost in every one of his sermons, Father Cleopa would ask the Christians:
“Do you have the icon of our Panagia in your home? Do you have a vigil lamp before her icon?”
Then he would advise them:
“Take our Protectress and Helper, our Mother who is in heaven, and place her also in your homes! She is the Queen of heaven and of earth!
If you take this Protectress, the Panagia, into your homes and read to her every morning, with her lamp burning, her Akathist, and in the evening her Paraklesis, you will have her as a helper throughout your whole life, and at the moment of your death, and on the day of Judgment.
Do you know how much our Mother, the Theotokos, is able to help before the Throne of the Holy Trinity? If she did not exist, I believe that this world would have been destroyed long ago!”
“Do you know who the Mother of our Lord is, and how much she loves, and how great her power is, and how great her mercy is? She is our Mother, who has mercy on the poor and the widows and all the other Christians. She always prays to the Savior Christ for all of us.”
2. Considering his healing as a small child, it is not surprising that Constantine [secular name of Elder Cleopa] developed a great devotion to the Mother of God at an early age. By the time he was eleven years old, he could sing the Akathist Hymn by heart. He would later tell the story of how he learned this ancient and poetic prayer:
“When I shucked corn in the field I would hide the prayer book under the husks until father would come with the horse-cart. During this time I would learn one more oikos and one more kontakion. And, lo and behold, I learned the entire Akathist to the Mother of God.”
3. Elder Cleopa recounted the following incident from the time he was living in a small hut in the wilderness:
“One time, at midnight, I was reading my prayer rule and was at the Akathist to the Protection of the Mother of God. All of a sudden a strong rumbling began. ‘My,’ I said, ‘it’s a big earthquake!’ When I opened the door a little, I saw a large wheel as big as the spruce tree and some hideous creatures all around it with pitchforks of fire. One of them said, ‘This is the abbot of Sihastria! Put him on the wheel.’ And immediately I found myself on the wheel. The wheel was turning and they stood ready with their pitchforks so that, if I fell, I would be impaled on their pitchforks. But I had the Akathist book with me and I said, ‘Get out of my way! Because I have documents from the Mother of God!’ Then I no longer saw the wheel or anything, and I came to myself in the hut.”
4. Each day Father Cleopa would read the Akathist to the Protection of the Mother of God. One day, upon opening the book to read, he sensed a fragrance that smelled like lilies and roses. He then prayed to God to remove this fragrance and didn’t read the Akathist for a while, realizing that the fragrance was a temptation from the enemy in order to throw him into pride. He would say, “When you pray, it is not good to receive any kind of smell or sensory impressions, because then the demons can come and throw you into pride.” When he resumed the reading of the Akathist, he no longer smelled the fragrance. Thus was he delivered from the temptation.
5. Almost in every one of his sermons, Father Cleopa would ask the Christians:
“Do you have the icon of our Panagia in your home? Do you have a vigil lamp before her icon?”
Then he would advise them:
“Take our Protectress and Helper, our Mother who is in heaven, and place her also in your homes! She is the Queen of heaven and of earth!
If you take this Protectress, the Panagia, into your homes and read to her every morning, with her lamp burning, her Akathist, and in the evening her Paraklesis, you will have her as a helper throughout your whole life, and at the moment of your death, and on the day of Judgment.
Do you know how much our Mother, the Theotokos, is able to help before the Throne of the Holy Trinity? If she did not exist, I believe that this world would have been destroyed long ago!”
