Homily on the Occasion of the First Official Celebration of Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos

Homily by Archimandrite Philippos Chamargias,
Protosyncellus of the Holy Metropolis of Messinia,
on the Occasion of the First Official Celebration of Saint Chrysostomos,
Missionary to Africa, Native of Messinia

(Delivered on December 29, 2025)

Our Holy Church has a feast every day; each day she honors and celebrates a saint. In the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year, we encounter thousands of saints of our faith.

Among them, like a star, there now shines in the firmament of our Church the saint honored today — Saint Chrysostomos, the Missionary to Africa, our compatriot and now a co-patron of this local community of Vasilitsi. But before we refer to the personality of the Saint, let us first see what the word Saint means.

A Saint means one who is pure — pure from every stain of sin.

Saints have come from every social class: men, women, and children. Saints were not only hierarchs, hieromonks, and clergy; every person has the possibility of participation in holiness.

After all, this is the purpose of our life: holiness through the Holy Spirit. When someone acquires the Holy Spirit, he becomes a saint and fulfills his destiny on earth. Christ Himself commanded: “Be holy, for I am holy,” which means: strive in your life to become saints, just as I am holy, I who created you.

Saint Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos - The Messinian and New "Cyril and Methodios" of Africa

By Archimandrite Philip Hamargias,
Chancellor of the Sacred Metropolis of Messinia

The presence of saints in the world, according to the late Professor John Fountoulis, is “proof of the work of the Church, of the energy of the Holy Spirit in the world.”

Thus, the presence of saints in an ecclesial community is the confirmation of the above statement, starting from a local level, which, however, through the Eucharistic communion of the faithful, the Church, transcends the limited limits and extends to the entire Body of the Church.

The Church, therefore, by honoring and exalting saints, challenges and invites each of us, by presenting to us the saints of every era, even the era we are living in, to experience holiness, according to the model of their lives, so that we may become genuine imitators of them, as they are of Christ, and confirming, through our lived experience, that holiness is not a species destined to disappear, nor a fossilized symbol, but a living reality and that each of us can participate in it.

The First Parish Church of Saint Gerasimos the Hymnographer Established in Congo

The first parish church in honor of the newly-canonized Saint Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis the Hymnographer had its foundations blessed on his first feast day since his canonization, December 7th 2023. This took place in Kenge, which is the capital of Kwango Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

On the day of the feast of Saint Gerasimos the Hymnographer, Metropolitan Theodosios of Kinshasa accompanied by his Chancellor the Archimandrite Gerasimos Belesi, who years ago received his name in honor of the Holy Elder Gerasimos the Hymnographer, arrived in the city of Kenge.

In this city recently, Voluntary Homeless Ministry based in Thessaloniki, with the support of its president Ms. Kyriaki Fragou, bought the plot of land in order to build a church in honor of Saint Gerasimos the Hymnographer.