Priest, Medical Doctor, Author
Two of these young men were at one point discharged from the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Attica and went back to their home, where they lived together. When they later went again to the Elder Eumenios (+ 5/23/1999) to see him, they said to him: “Elder, all this time that we have been coming here, you have fed us, given us drink, and cared for us. We also want to invite you one day to our home, so that we may take care of you.”
So the Elder said to me:
“Vangelis, we shall go.”
I said:
“Elder, where are we going? These people are…”
“Vangelis, I know, I know what they are…”
“But, Elder, these two are living together. They live in the same house. They also wear rings.”
So you must all understand — and the Church must understand it, and the people must understand it — that already from 1984 there were homosexuals who lived together and wore rings. Do you understand what I mean? That is, they were engaged, married, as it were. In any case, I said to him:
“Elder, how are we going to go there? If someone sees us entering that house, they will say, ‘Where did these men go?’ and so on.”
He said to me:
“The world does not know. What does the world know, Vangelis? They too are human beings, human beings.”
So we got into my car and went. It was myself, Fr. Eumenios, and Argyro. The Elder entered and they welcomed him. That house was… a black wall here, a red wall there, curtains beyond anything you can imagine, all sorts of gaudy decorations, with lights and various things — an atmosphere very foreign to us. They had prepared food — they had cooked fish for the Elder, because he did not eat meat — he blessed the table and we ate.
As soon as we finished, he said to me:
“Vangelis, I am sleepy. I want to lie down and sleep a little, and afterward we shall return.”
I asked the young men and told them that the Elder wanted to lie down for a while. They said to me:
“Mr. Papanikolaou, we do not have anywhere to make up a bed for him to lie down. We only have the double bed where the two of us sleep. And we are ashamed. Where can we put him? On the bed where we commit the sins we commit? How can we put this holy man there?”
I said to him:
“Elder, the men told me they only have the double bed where they sleep. Please, let us leave, and you can sleep in the car.”
“No, Vangelis. I want to sleep here.”
“But Elder, how will you sleep there?”
“They will bring me a sheet to lie on, and I shall sleep.”
Indeed, Fr. Eumenios placed a single sheet on one side of the bed, and he lay down there. We sat for an hour and a half. He slept, then got up, ate ice cream, we drank coffee, and we left.
From that day on, because the Saint had visited their house, and because hanging over their heads was the sword of Damocles of a malignancy, of an illness (for many times, when AIDS was not treatable, certain cancers would appear, for which they had to receive treatments), these young men said the following: “We will continue living together, but we will not live carnally. And we shall do this for Fr. Eumenios.”
And indeed, that is what they did, while also confessing to the Saint. In the end, both of them died, and we went to their funeral with Fr. Eumenios, and he read the funeral prayers for them. And he always commemorated them.
What do I want to say with this story? Merely by lying down on their bed, he broke up their relationship. Do you understand? He neither shouted, nor said anything, neither this nor that… He would say:
“They are our own children, blessed ones. It does not matter.”
He blessed their food, their table — but not the sin. Pay attention to this! He knew the sin, and he rejected it. This is a very good example of how to deal with such situations, one that I had forgotten, but with all the uproar that happened recently over the issue of homosexual marriage (in 2024), I remembered it. I also remembered that after this event those men went and venerated at Tinos, removed their rings, and left them before the icon — that is, their conversion had begun.
We do not force people — I must tell you this again — to convert by violence. The grace of the Holy Spirit will overshadow any person, provided that he encounters a saint of God — because people want to see with their own eyes a saint of God.
Source: From the book Γράφει ο άγγελος, Βαγγέλη! Αναμνήσεις και εμπειρίες από τον Όσιο Ευμένιο (The Angel Writes, Vangelis! Memories and Experiences from Venerable Eumenios), pp. 154-156. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
For more than fifteen years, the Mystagogy Resource Center has been a labor of love dedicated to making the riches of the Orthodox Christian tradition freely available to people throughout the world.
Thousands of articles, translations, lives of saints, theological reflections, historical resources, and daily materials have been published across this ministry’s websites, all offered free of charge for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Orthodox faith.
This is a one-man ministry that requires countless hours of research, translation, writing, editing, and maintenance each day.
If this work has spiritually benefited, educated, encouraged, or inspired you in any way, I humbly ask you to consider supporting this ministry financially.
Generous annual and monthly benefactors make possible the continuation and expansion of this work for the future, for without such support this ministry cannot exist.
Every contribution, whether large or small, truly makes a difference and is deeply appreciated. May God bless you abundantly for your generosity and prayers.
