The monastery of the highly miraculous Orthodox contemporary saint, St Porfyrios, is situated in Milesi, near the coastal town of Skala Oropou in North Attica. It is on a peak, amidst a pine tree forest, with marvelous views to the Evoikos Gulf.
I was very excited to visit this holy place one afternoon, earlier this spring, as St Porfyrios is one of my favorite saints. A man of little education but a great gift of clairvoyance, he had a burning faith in God and a profound sense of humility. He lived his life, from early on, as a servant to God and other people.
On every religious icon (and plain photograph) that I saw during my visit, St Porfyrios was smiling that sweet, benevolent smile of his.
The monastery is a finished work, but the church still looks quite bare by Orthodox standards. Money is still being raised for murals to be painted on the walls. Still, the interior is beautiful in its simplicity and the architecture vastly imposing.
In a chapel close by, a vial of the saint’s blood is on display in a glass case. This was donated by his doctors at the hospital where he was treated, so that a small remnant of his DNA can be present at the monastery, since there are no relics to worship.
The saint’s wish was to be buried at an undisclosed location as he didn’t want his grave to become a place of worship. This was the reason why he returned to the monastic community of Mount Athos (aka The Holy Mountain, in northern Greece) in order to die there. Following his passing, the monks buried him privately at an unknown location.
St Porfyrios of Kavsokalyvia (1906-1991) was born Evangelos Bairaktaris in Evia to poor farmers. As a child, he received very little education and worked in coal mines and grocery stores.
Driven by his faith in God, he eventually ran away from home at age 12 or 14 and went to Mount Athos where he became a monk. When he contracted severe pleurisy, he was forced to leave Mount Athos, seeking an auspicious climate back in Evia, where he was ordained a priest at the age of 20.
He served at the Athens Polyclinic hospital, as a confessor to countless patients, staff and visitors for 33 years (1940-1973). In 1979, he founded the Milesi monastery, establishing the Holy Convent of the Transfiguration of the Savior. He took part in the building process, and even in the very last years of his life, rendered blind by then, he still roamed about the place, overseeing the works and walking on treacherous grounds unaided, miraculously so.
The desire to house a sanctuary for women in the monastery was great in St Porfyrios’s heart. He wanted it to be a place where female believers could come to stay and find peace for a few days, when life seemed too much, and when guidance was needed – something the nuns could provide once he had passed.
Today, women still come to stay in the sanctuary within the convent grounds to take advantage of the peaceful surroundings, but as for the nuns, only 3 remain today, all of them elderly. This particular detail saddened me, but I hope that, in time, the monastery will flourish again, with many nuns finding a home there to serve God and the faithful in need.
I took this photograph shortly before leaving, as the sun began to set. When I saw it enlarged on my computer, it caused in me a mixture of humor and intrigue. You may be able to spot an orb of light, created by my camera lens, at the ground floor of the building in the distance.
It is right at the doorway that leads upstairs, to St Porfyrios’s room. “What an apt place for the orb to show up on”, I thought.
Indeed, the saint’s living quarters–just a tiny room–is a place of ample light, of burning oil and incense, a holy place. It is as humble as the saint himself. It consists of just a window, a chair, a cabinet where olive oil burns with a floating wick in a big bowl, and the tiniest cot that could ever possibly accomodate an adult man.
I stood amidst this minute space that has grown sacred by the saint’s humble presence over the years, and I felt thankful as I let the remnant energy of His undeniable holiness soak me through.
I imagined the multitudes of people in need walking in there while he was still alive, asking for help, for guidance, for healing. It was really humbling to be there, and it made me wish I had known of him earlier in life, so that I could have been one of them, too.
Still, I reasoned then, saints continue to help people even after their death, and never tire to do that. If anything, they can do this even better, as they are no longer affected by disease, physical pains and old age to be limited in the least, like St Porfyrios was in his latter years.
St Porfyrios, much like the other greatly loved contemporary saint who was also a monk at Mt Athos, St Paisios, had great gifts of the Spirit, which he employed in order to help as many people as he could during his lifetime.
He was visited constantly by masses of people, even in his latter years when he was frail and suffered from pains. He healed many and even foretold future events that helped to guide and inspire some of those who sought his counsel.
He would often meet someone for the first time and know things about them, given to him by The Spirit. There are countless accounts of this particular gift of spiritual discernment that allowed him to look into someone’s soul and address their issue with counsel before they even spoke about it.
The saint was also well known for his ability to sense currents of water flowing under the earth. Many a time, he would walk in a field and point the place where people could dig to find water. I have also read one account where he advised a man, unprompted, where to dig in his field to find water – a piece of land he’d never visited.
St Porfyrios was sighted many times in visions by common people, be it before or after his passing. There are countless miracles and other supernatural events on formal record, with mentions of locales, dates, and people’s full names, that tell incredible stories. The monastery collects them all and publishes books of these accounts, including many photographs.
As I own two of these books, I have read countless real incidents involving St Porfyrios that defy logic.
One particular incident involving him stands out, which is quite well-known among the faithful, who study the lives of the Orthodox saints. It is about a young man, who had a personal problem and knew the saint personally, so he phoned his number for advice, as he often did.
St Porfyrios answered the phone, gave the young man counsel, and then told him something incredible before ending the call: “Do not phone me again, child, as I have passed away.”
Speechless, the young man sought confirmation of this and soon learned that, indeed, the saint had recently passed away, days before that phonecall. This, along with so many other supernatural accounts, remain without any logical explanation today.
I will end this article with one last story that, to me, sheds light on how the way we lead our lives can affect our health and that of our children. I hope it provides understanding to anyone who may need it, and I pray they will take St Porfyrios’s advice to heart:
A woman and her husband brought their small child to the saint’s room in the monastery one day. The mother confessed she was in terrible stress because of the child’s disposition and bad health. She’d lost her sleep since giving birth as the child didn’t sleep soundly. During their visit, the child was breathing laboriously and rapidly.
St Porfyrios took the child’s hand and seemed to pray for a few moments. Then, he took the mother’s hand, feeling her pulse. Suddenly, he did something totally unexpected: he slapped her hand away. Then, he took the father’s hand and felt his pulse too. Finally, he told them:
“When we are stressed, over work or anything else, we must raise our arms and pray to Jesus Christ. We must not let the stress take hold of us, because stress causes cancer and other diseases… It is not enough to go to church or fast. We must have Jesus in our minds all day. All day, all the time, repeat under your breath, over and over, ‘Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.’ Whether at work or at leisure, keep your mind on the Lord. You must reach a point where you love and adore him, where He comes into your heart. You must become good Christians. I can see back and forth bickering in your relations, envy, bad feelings… I can see a lot! Leave all that behind and lead a Christian life. Correct that. You understand? If you do that your child will get well. God will help it.”
After he said these words, the child calmed down and began to breathe easily. The mother later reported her child slept through the night for the very first time, and so did she. Since then, the child never fell ill gravely again. Only minor breathing issues remained, but they continued to sleep soundly every night.
St Porfyrios was canonised as a saint by the Orthodox church in 2013.
He is commemorated annually on December 2, which is the day he passed away–or, as we say in the Orthodox way, the day “he fell asleep” (koimisis).
GO HERE to see all the photos I took at the monastery.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to see this one about Saint Efraim, another miraculous Orthodox saint. His monastery is situated in Nea Makri, Attica, near Marathon.
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