Saint Sophrony and the Children That Visited Him

Father Paisios the Mathematician was a direct disciple of Saint Paisios the Athonite and the spiritual father of the female Monastery of Saint Hilarion near the village of Promachoi in the Municipality of Aridaia. One of his neighbors was a little girl named Chryse, and according to him she once went to visit Saint Sophrony with her mother. The Saint had never met them before, but as soon as he saw Chryse he welcomed her by name, saying: "Welcome Chrysoula! I knew a little girl would come from Greece!" And when the girl's mother asked the Saint to bless the child, he said: "Why should I bless her! I wish where this child will go, I will go too!" Shortly after this meeting and the photo taken above, Chryse passed away.

Eight Year Old Myrto And Her Wise Teacher

I remember Myrto, a charming little girl. She developed acute leukemia. With unparalleled silence and patience she braved the most aggressive treatments given to her, with a sweet expression constantly lighting up her pale little face.

The more she patiently endured, the more her parents broke down, and together with their hopes they gradually lost the last traces of their faith. They were not particularly religious to begin with, but some small seed was in them.

Interview With a Popular Orthodox Christian Metropolitan About the Challenges of his Childhood

 

Interview with Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol in Cyprus

By Elita Michailidou

On February 19, 2020

Interviewer: Does Metropolitan Athanasios have a worldly name? Did he have a worldly name?

Metropolitan Athanasios: Of course, I didn't fall from heaven!

I: What is your name?

MA: Andrew

I: When were you born?

MA: February 8, 1959

My Childhood Introduction to the Bible (2 of 5)

...continued from part one

A few years passed, and now I was at a point where I knew many Bible stories at a very basic level, especially from the Old Testament, and they moved me, but I didn't know how to theologically tie it all together. After all, I was in elementary school with no one to really teach me, but I was discovering these things on my own. I was also growing up, had just left all my friends when I moved to a new town and entered a new school, and I was often alone. Then something happened that forever changed my life and tied everything together for me. It had to do with that one part of the Bible I needed to hear that I never understood before.

When I was ten years old, my temperament was somewhat nihilistic and angry. My mind was often occupied with death and the meaning of life. Though I was born and raised a Greek Orthodox Christian, theologically what made most sense to me was that life was but a dream within a dream, that I was living outside of reality, and my real self was some cosmic entity who imagined my present reality; it was all nothing but a figment of my imagination. Trouble often found me, and if my parents punished me for it, then all I could feel was hatred for them. They were even ready to send me to military school, since to them my future was bleak. If left unchecked for long, no doubt I would have grown up to be a model rebellious teenager.

At the time I was forced to attend Greek school twice a week after regular school. The previous year I had a horrible Greek school teacher, who was very verbally abusive to me. This eventually got her fired after it was exposed, but my experience with Greek school was not that great before this, and it just made a bad situation worse. Now I was in the fifth grade, and my teacher was a young seminarian named Yianni (he never gave us his last name) from Greece who was studying at Holy Cross School of Theology. He was actually very kind, patient and had a particular fondness for me. This was because every week for one of the two days he never taught us the Greek language, but instead talked about our Greek Orthodox faith and heritage. To me this was refreshing, and I always listened attentively, while everyone else was practically snoring. This I think is why he liked me so much.

My Childhood Introduction to the Bible (1 of 5)

By John Sanidopoulos

My family never had a family Bible. In fact, the Bible played no role in my upbringing. I was a typical Greek Orthodox Christian kid, who went to church once or twice a month, with the summer months off completely. I went to Greek School twice a week throughout elementary school, and Sunday School only for about two years. When I was around 6 or 7 years old my mother removed me from Sunday School and made a special request to my priest to have me serve in the altar as an altar boy. Typically you had to be at least 12 or 13 to be an altar boy, but my priest made the exception and I began to serve in the altar. I was relieved, because I was bored of coloring in sketches from the Bible which had little to no meaning, and drawing figures of three crosses on a hill. The altar was much more exciting, because I was at the center of the action, and I got to hang around mostly high school kids, even though the two main altar servers were bullies.

St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, the Child That Christ Presented as a Model for All

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to himself, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, such is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:1-4)

According to an ancient tradition, Saint Ignatius, the second Bishop of Antioch, was the child whom Christ took and presented to the apostles as the example of the one who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. From that day the child, who was most beloved by the Savior and favored with the divine embrace, was also marked as the one upon whom lions would feast in Rome. He did this because he loved Christ above all since he was a child.