Defilement through Communion with Heretical or Wrongly Believing Bishops

Ioannis Rizos

"If any of the bishops, or presbyters, or deacons is found to be communing with those who are excommunicated, let him also be excommunicated."

 (Second Canon of the Council of Antioch)

It is indeed striking how strictly the Holy Fathers impose discipline not only against heretics but also against members of the Church who adopt erroneous beliefs. This is because the Church is not only divided by heretics but also by those who believe and spread similar errors: "It is not only cut apart by heretics, but also by those who think and speak alike with them." [1]

Even the slightest matter concerning God is not insignificant, according to Saint Gregory Palamas.[2] John Chrysostomos tells us: "Not only those who sin, but also those who praise the sinners, suffer the same or even worse punishment." [3]

"Every clergyman," says Saint Symeon the Theologian, "whose faith, words, and works do not align with the teachings of the Holy Fathers, we must not receive into our house. Rather, we must turn away from him and despise him as a demon, even if he raises the dead and works countless other miracles." [4]

Is this strictness, then, an arbitrary harshness and "peculiarity" of the saints? Of course not! Our very Lord Himself was the first to clearly teach how we should react when we hear teachings contrary to those He Himself and His disciples handed down. Jesus Christ taught that His own sheep flee when they hear the voice of a foreign teacher: "But a stranger [shepherd] they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." [5]

And immediately after walling off, the Holy Apostles taught: "...Therefore, you must flee from corrupting shepherds." [6] More than a few times, official shepherds have poisoned the flock—through distorted teaching—leading them to the worship of other gods. For "heresy is not only faith in a foreign god," [7] but "it has clothed itself entirely with the devil." [8]

In our days, bishops have openly proven to be false bishops because they defile the Faith by condescending to heretics. "Woe to those who defile the Holy Faith with heresies or condescend to heretics." [9]

Saint Antiochos the Pandect said that one who does not have the right faith must not only be shunned but also anathematized—that is, considered to be outside the Church. [10] "Not even for a short time do we accept any relationship with those who waver in the faith." [11] … "Even if they seem very genuine and official, we who love the Lord must abhor them." [12]

Saint Theodore the Studite declares: "And if they are said to be friends according to God, how can they be in communion with the heterodox? For such people are neither true nor faithful friends." [13]

The same saint says: "The heretics have utterly shipwrecked in the faith. But even those who have not been entirely submerged in their minds will perish together with them due to their communion with heresy." [14]

He considers "remaining in communion with one's wrongly believing bishop a betrayal of the Orthodox Confession." [15]

These Patristic positions were also incorporated into the Acts of the Seventh Ecumenical Council: "Whoever justifies heresy, let him be anathematized."

Saint Athanasius the Great, regarding one who holds impious doctrines, states: "Avoid him, and thus you will preserve your faith pure." [16]

According to Saint Nektarios of Aegina: "Communion with him [the wrongly believing and heretical] defiles the faith, along with the responsibilities that this entails. Therefore, external non-communion protects from internal alienation." … "It is false what they claim, that the paths of piety are many... There is one path, and it is narrow, not broad... One and only God and Lord." [17]

If the Evangelist John, the "disciple of love," says that one who does not accept the teaching of Christ and the Apostles should neither be received into your house nor even greeted, for by doing so, you partake in his evil works and become an accomplice—how much more, then, should we not accept him in the temple as a celebrant? [18]

If Saint Basil the Great emphasizes: "Reject a heretical man," [19] how much more should we reject a wrongly believing clergyman?

Saint John Chrysostom explains to us: "Not only if some speak entirely contrary things that overturn everything, but even if they teach the slightest contradiction, let them be anathematized." [20]

"From such people, we must flee as we flee when we encounter a serpent, and we must cut off all communion and flee with all our strength, even if they seem venerable and meek," teaches Saint Photius the Great. [21]

What do we truly hope to inherit, we who voluntarily and willingly follow the modern heresy-promoting bishops despite the wrath of God and damnation?

"If someone pretends to confess the right faith but is seen communing with them [the heretics], exhort him to abstain from such a habit; and if he promises and fulfills it, consider him as a brother. But if he stubbornly persists, cut him off." [22]

Saint Job Iasites the Confessor said: "Therefore, we must not associate with them [the Latin-minded]… We will strive with all our strength not to be defiled by ecclesiastical communion with them and not to partake in their scabies or their destructive disease. We will also protect ourselves in every way and completely abstain from their faction." [23]

Saint Meletios Galesiotes: "The Latins are heretics, and those who commune with them perish." [24]

Saint Gregory Palamas adds: "Since Kalekas is thus and has been cut off so many times from the entire fullness of the Orthodox, it is consequently impossible for one to belong to the pious who has not separated from him. On the contrary, whoever for these reasons is separated from Kalekas, then he truly belongs to the list of Christians and is united with God according to the pious faith." [25]

And furthermore: "It is impossible for someone to be in ecclesiastical communion with the Patriarch (Kalekas) and to be Orthodox… whereas the one who was walled off is united with the pious faith." [26]

We must emphasize once again—because it is of the utmost importance—that when Gregory taught these things, he was walled off, and Kalekas had not yet been synodically condemned!

Saint Theodore the Studite recalls the command of Saint Athanasius the Great: "We must have no communion with heretics, nor even with those who commune with the impious." [27]

Thus, he lawfully concludes his final position: "Neither commune with them [the heretics] nor commemorate them in the Divine Liturgy; for the greatest threats have been pronounced by the saints against those who condescend to them, even to the point of dining with them." [28]

The Apostolic Canons fully support this position: "If anyone prays with one who is excommunicated, even in a house, let him also be excommunicated." [29]

Saint Mark says: "Advise the priests of God to avoid ecclesiastical communion with their Latin-minded metropolitan in every way, neither to concelebrate with him, nor to commemorate him at all, nor to consider him a bishop, but rather as a hired wolf! …Therefore, brothers, avoid ecclesiastical communion with the excommunicated and the commemoration of those who are unworthy of mention. This Latin-minded bishop will be condemned together with the Latins and will be regarded as a betrayer of the faith." [30]

"Flee from them as one flees from a serpent, for they are worse than those, or even much worse than them, as traffickers of Christ and Christ-profiteers… Therefore, brothers, flee from them and from communion with them. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ." [31]

It is important to emphasize that the Saint does not raise issues such as the necessity of synodical approval, the risk of schism, the alleged severance from the Church, or the application of economy for the sake of peace or the continuation of preaching.

After the signing of the false union at Ferrara-Florence, Saint Mark said: "I am convinced that the more I distance myself from him [the Patriarch] and from such men [the Latin-minded], the closer I draw to God and to the Saints, and the more I separate from them, the more I unite with the truth." [32]

The Saint further states: "Those who pretend to confess the sound faith but commune [commemorate] with the heterodox—if, after your exhortation, they do not withdraw from them—not only must you regard them as outside the Church, but you must not even call them brothers." [33]

And for Saint Neophytos the Recluse: "Ecclesiastical communion with the Papists places the one who communes under the anathemas of the Councils and in the depths of Hades."

In conclusion, we will mention the words of Saint Germanos, Patriarch of Constantinople, to the Cypriot laity regarding their walling off from their clergy, who had submitted to the Latin conquerors in the 12th and 13th centuries: "...All who are true children of the Catholic Church, flee with all haste from the priests who have fallen into Latin submission, and do not gather with them in church, nor receive even the slightest blessing from their hands; for it is better to pray to God alone in your homes than to gather in churches with the Latin-minded. Otherwise, you will suffer the same damnation as they." [34]

"To those who knowingly commune [with heretics], anathema." — Seventh Ecumenical Council [35]

[1] Basil the Great, Epistle to Athanasius the Great, P.G. 32, 425.
[2] "Nothing is small in matters concerning God," Saint Gregory Palamas, Apodictic Discourse I on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, Prologue, Kyromanos Publications, vol. A, p. 24.
[3] John Chrysostom, Selections and Anthologies, Homily 24, 40, ed. Matthaios Langis.
[4] Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Homily 6.
[5] John 10:5.
[6] Apostolic Constitutions 2, 19.
[7] Athanasius the Great, E.P.E. 9, ch. 80, 27.
[8] Idem, ch. 66, 1.
[9] Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Homily on the Second Coming of Christ.
[10] P.G. 89, 1848B.
[11] "Not even for a moment do we accept association with them if we find them limping in the Faith," and "Those who pretend to confess the sound Orthodox faith but commune with the heterodox—if after instruction they do not withdraw—must not only be considered excommunicated but must not even be called brothers."
[12] Basil the Great, Chapters of the Rules in Summary, question 114.
[13] P.G. 99, 1081A.
[14] P.G. 99, 1164A.
[15] P.G. 99, 1365.
[16] P.G. 26, 1188DC.
[17] Saint Nektarios of Aegina, On Relations with Heretics, Panagopoulos Publications.
[18] 2 John 1:11.
[19] P.G. 31, 649.
[20] John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians.
[21] E.P.E. 12, 400, 31.
[22] Athanasius the Great, To Those Who Practice the Monastic Life...
[23] Dimitrakopoulos Andreas, History of the Schism..., p. 61.
[24] V. Laurent - J. Darrouzes, Dossier Grec de l’Union de Lyon, pp. 554, 558, 559.
[25] E.P.E. 3, 692, Refutation of the Explanation of Kalekas' Tome.
[26] Idem.
[27] TLG, Theodore Studites, Ecclesiastical and Theological Writings, Epistles, Epistle 466, lines 15-28.
[28] TLG, Theodore Studites, Ecclesiastical and Theological Writings, Epistles, Epistle 39, lines 51-80. P.G. 99, 1048C-D.
[29] Apostolic Canon X, Pedalion, Athens 1886, p. 13.
[30] TLG, Theodore Studites, Ecclesiastical and Theological Writings, Epistles, Epistle 39, lines 51-80. P.G. 99, 1048C-D.
[31] To All the Orthodox Christians Throughout the World, §6, in Ioannis Karmiris, The Dogmatic and Symbolic Monuments of the Orthodox Catholic Church, Athens 1960, vol. A, p. 427.
[32] Archimandrite Dionysios Tatsis, With Boldness and Without Condemnation, p. 98.
[33] "Those who pretend to confess the sound Orthodox faith but commune with the heterodox—if after instruction they do not withdraw—must not only be considered excommunicated but must not even be called brothers." N. Vasileiadis, Mark of Ephesus and the Union of the Churches, Soter Publications, Athens, 1972, p. 95.
[34] Joseph Bryennios, The Discovered Writings, vol. B, p. 26.
[35] Mansi 13, 400 and P.G. 13, 128. Posted by Patristic Tradition.

Greek source: https://apotixisi.blogspot.com/2024/08/blog-post_19.html

An Autobiography of Basil Sakkas (1934-2014), author of "The Calendar Question"

My name is Basil Sakkas. I am 75 years old, married with three children. Primarily a resident of Athens, but due to my family obligations I travel frequently. I lived in Geneva, Switzerland from 1961 to 1991. I am a retiree of the “European Organization for Nuclear Research” (C.E.R.N.) where I worked for 28 years as an assistant librarian. Also, simultaneously from 1968 to 1976 I served as a married clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and was canonically under the Archbishop of Geneva and Western Europe, the ever-memorable Kyros Anthony.

From childhood, I was always interested in religious and ecclesiastical matters. I read many religious and theological books in various languages. I participated in many seminars of theological content. I attended many studies and lectures. I myself engaged many times in the writing of religious books and studies. I occupied myself with the catechism of both youth and adults. Thus, I can, with the help of God and without arrogance, say that I have a sufficient knowledge and experience of religious matters. (...)

The ever-memorable [Matthewite Metropolitan] Epiphanios was a born leader. He had the temperament of those people who consider every adversity in their life as a motive to surpass themselves. He lived on earth as if there were nothing else in the world except God and his conscience. He governed the Church with an iron hand wearing a velvet glove. He was strict and gentle at the same time. Demanding toward the powerful and condescending toward the weak. The people loved him and his opponents respected him. (...)

I had the fortune in my life to meet the ever-memorable Epiphanios and to become spiritually connected with him as follows. Around the end of 1971, Archbishop Anthony asked me to go to the Archdiocese in order to serve as an interpreter because the Metropolitan of Kition and All Cyprus and Exarch of the [Matthewite] G.O.C., Kyros Epiphanios, had visited him to discuss certain ecclesiastical matters. The interpretation was conducted in the Greek and French languages.

During the conversation, I formed the impression that the ever-memorable Epiphanios was distinguished particularly for his reliability, honesty, dignity, and integrity, and this created an attraction in me toward his person. On his part as well, I perceived that I also inspired trust in him, and thus he too had shown some interest in me.

After the end of the meeting, the ever-memorable Epiphanios told me that he would need to come to Geneva a few more times in order to continue his conversations with Archbishop Anthony. Since he neither knew the language nor how to move about in an unfamiliar city, he asked me if it would be possible for my wife and me to host him during those visits of his. This we gladly accepted.

Thus began to be formed and developed a relationship of spiritual friendship and mutual trust which, with the help of God, was sincere, unbroken, and cloudless until the repose of the ever-memorable Epiphanios.

During his visits to Geneva, where he stayed at my home for several days each time, we had the opportunity to discuss at length a multitude of ecclesiastical matters that concerned us. He also had the time to recount to me in great detail his experiences at the Holy Monastery of Stavrovouni and [Panagia] Trooditissa, as well as the superhuman hardships he faced when in 1940 he began to live as an ascetic in Fourní under a pomegranate tree.

As our acquaintance progressed, he also recounted to me at length and in great detail how he created and gradually built the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration. We often discussed the various difficulties and problems he encountered daily. At that time, he had not yet built the main Monastery, which, together with the Katholikon, that is, the main church, would be completed in 1984.

During his visits, he also met many of my friends and acquaintances there. Two young men from France asked him for permission to stay near him for a period of time in Cyprus, which indeed took place. In 1972, he asked my colleague at C.E.R.N., Mr. François Magnien, an architect, if he could draw up the plans for the future main Monastery of the Transfiguration that he intended to build on a property located in Avdellero, Larnaca. Mr. Magnien replied that he was willing to prepare the plans for him, and even free of charge, but due to the language and his professional obligations, it was not possible for him to travel to Cyprus to oversee the progress of the works. As the ever-memorable Epiphanios later informed us, due to these difficulties he eventually preferred to assign the entire work to another architect from Cyprus, and the contract was given to Mr. Stylianos Kounas from Aradippou.

In the discussions I had with him, however, certain reservations arose in me concerning the canonicity of my ordination to the priesthood within the framework of the Russian Orthodox Church, and I asked him if it would be possible to discuss them with him. Indeed, he agreed, and after listening to me attentively, he said to me:

— I was very saddened by what you told me, because I had intended to ask Archbishop Anthony to give you a letter of release so that you could then join the Church of Cyprus. However, according to what you are telling me, I think that the most correct, honest, and consistent thing is for you to resign from the priesthood and to serve God in another way. If you do not do this, no matter how many good works you may perform, your conscience will always reproach you, that all these good works you are doing in order to cover, to conceal, and to justify an irregularity, and this is not pleasing before God.

In turn, I too was greatly saddened after what he told me, but on the other hand, I recognized that he was right and I appreciated once again his ethos and integrity. He gave me the proof that, as an honest Levite, he does not govern the Church with utilitarianism and expediency but with the fear of God. I understood that he is a Bishop in whom one can unreservedly entrust the salvation of his soul.

I told him that I agreed with what he pointed out to me, but I asked him for a grace period because such decisions are not made within 24 hours, and that I had to arrange this matter within the framework of the Hierarchy to which I canonically belonged. He replied that he understood and that he was convinced God would help me to do the right thing at the appropriate time.

I understood that the ever-memorable Epiphanios loved people spiritually and without sentimentality. He saw everyone as souls that had to be saved. He measured everyone in general by the measure of the Church and made no concessions to anyone, whether friend or relative. (...)

Since, as I previously mentioned, the ever-memorable Epiphanios recounted to me his history and the history of the founding and building of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration in great detail, I must clarify the following. It is not easy for someone to understand the ever-memorable Epiphanios, his philosophy and his actions, if he does not have some basic knowledge of the Ascetical Theology of the Orthodox Church. However, since it happened that I studied, even theoretically and encyclopedically, the Evergetinos, the so-called Gerontikon, the Leimonarion, etc., I particularly understood what he was telling me. It was as if we had attended, at least theoretically, the same school. In our conversations we spoke the same language, even if at times we did not use the correct and commonly accepted words for something. (...)

Thus, as we all know, he settled under the pomegranate tree, utterly alone, having a Holy Scripture and the Evergetinos, which he hid inside a tin can so that the mice would not eat them. And there he began from nothing “with a borrowed mattock,” because his own mattock he had to acquire himself, the work which we all see and admire today.

The only help he ever wished to accept, as he told me, was a loaf of bread from his godmother, and this for symbolic reasons because she was his spiritual mother. He recounted to me that for years the labor was harsh and superhuman. As he told me, “He would draw a hundred buckets of water and then sit to read one page from the Evergetinos. Then he would draw another hundred buckets and read yet another page,” and this continued for years “from the morning watch until night,” from dawn until night. Thus, the first money was gathered in order to purchase the first steps for the gradual construction of the monastic complex.

The ever-memorable Epiphanios came several times to Geneva. Eventually, however, his negotiations with Archbishop Anthony and the hierarchy of the Russian Church did not bear fruit, and thus he ceased coming. We had, however, remained in constant contact through correspondence, more rarely by telephone. As for my personal affairs, until I made a final decision, I had ceased to liturgize.

I also met the ever-memorable Epiphanios often in Athens when I went for my holidays and he happened to be there as well for matters with the Holy Synod. (...)

In 1976 I made my final decision and resigned definitively from the priesthood. When I mentioned it to the ever-memorable Epiphanios, he replied that I had done the right thing and that God had a thousand other ways to bless my services within the Church, and he asked me to visit him in Cyprus. However, I hesitated and was ashamed to appear before him now wearing trousers, and I found excuses to avoid it. But he insisted, and so one day, many years later, I decided to come to Cyprus for the first time.

As far as I remember, I must have come to Cyprus for the first time around December of 1988. (...)

The first thing I asked of him was to take me to the pomegranate tree where he had lived as an ascetic. So one morning he put me on the tractor and took me to Fourní. There he showed me what was left of the tree, and the ruins of his first structures: a small chapel, his cell, and a cistern, if I remember correctly.

On the way back, we passed through the various properties of the Holy Monastery. Every so often he would get down from the tractor and at a certain spot place stones. Sometimes two, sometimes three or four, sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. I asked him what this meant. He told me that it was a kind of coded language for the sisters who would come afterward, and by seeing these stones, they knew what work had to be done in that field—watering, weeding, or anything else. “Well,” I asked him, “don’t they know on their own what they should do?” He smiled and said to me, “If they knew, Basil, do you think I wouldn’t have other matters of the Church to concern myself with? But the one responsible for the Monastery is obliged to keep watch, day and night, over every detail—both spiritual and material. With the stones I tell them not only to water it, but also how and how much to water it.” (...)

In the meantime, following his instruction, I came to Cyprus several times when my holidays permitted it, until 1991, when due to health reasons I took early retirement. The ever-memorable Epiphanios asked me to assist him in the writing work of the Church and to organize certain seminars on religious Catechism for our youth, librarianship, and grammar according to the polytonic system. Thus, we wrote together certain books and pamphlets of an apologetic nature, mainly concerning the theological significance of the ecclesiastical calendar.

He asked me to find for him from Athens three or four old typewriters with the polytonic system. The new ones that were then available on the market were monotonic, and he did not wish to adopt the monotonic system either in his writings or in the administration of the Church, which I indeed did.

I always tried to do whatever he told me and in the manner that he wanted it done. My only compensation was my travel tickets, and while I was in Cyprus, he provided me with food and lodging. Nothing more. Each time I stayed in Cyprus usually for a month, and once I stayed for three and a half months. At times I stayed either in the Guesthouse of the Holy Monastery, as I mentioned above, or in the Holy Hesychasterion when it was built around 1991, and during the first years no nun stayed there overnight. Later, when nuns began to stay overnight, he built me a small room near the Holy Hesychasterion. Afterwards, I stayed at the Missionary Foundation of Saint Epiphanios, which was established later.

Many times, whenever he wished, we would discuss various ecclesiastical matters and problems. Nevertheless, I neither acquired nor sought to acquire what is commonly referred to as parrhesia, that is, a wrongly understood familiarity. Our relationship was based on a Code of conduct according to the examples of the Holy Fathers. He always spoke to me in the singular, and I always replied to him in the plural. I never knocked on his door or crossed the threshold of his cell without him having invited me. Whenever he needed me, he would send someone to call me. I never expressed my opinion about anything unless he himself asked me for it.

He never said “thank you” to me for the services I offered to the best of my ability. We both knew that such things are not prescribed by the Gospel. And that when we performed our duties toward the Church, according to the words of Christ, we were simply “unprofitable servants.” His “thank you” was the satisfaction I felt when, upon reviewing a piece of my work, he approved it as being in accordance with the teaching, order, and tradition of the Church and accepted it.

The ever-memorable Epiphanios was not one of those people who could be manipulated, directed, or yield to pressure. Although by temperament he possessed a very strong personality, he nonetheless had the humility to listen even to the opinion of a small child. In the end, however, he himself would decide what he would do, according to what his episcopal conscience dictated to him. One day, in jest, I said to him: “But, Despota, at least leave one acute accent incorrect once in a while!” Then he replied to me seriously: “Basil, everything I sign must represent me, even if it is just an acute accent.”

One day he asked me to follow him, and he took me up to the small hill where the Holy Hesychasterion was later built. He pointed out to me another hill opposite, and between them is the Monastery of the Transfiguration. “You see,” he said to me, “Basil, the Monastery in the middle is the Lord, and these two hills are Moses and the Prophet Elias who appeared together with Christ on Mount Tabor. I have decided to build my Hesychasterion on this hill here. It will also serve me as an episcopal residence so that whoever comes to see me will not needlessly disturb the sisters, and at the same time, I will be able to oversee the Monastery and direct the sisters and the affairs of the Monastery. This, after all, is what the ever-memorable Matthaios [Karpathakis] also did with the Holy Monastery of Keratea. And since beneath this hill, while praying to the Theotokos, I found water, I will dedicate this Hesychasterion to the Life-Giving Spring.”

Indeed, I often remember him going out onto the balcony to observe the orchards and then sending them messages about the work that needed to be done. I remember once when he was sick in bed and received a message. I saw him get up and disappear. Later, when he returned and could no longer stand on his feet, he told me that something had happened with the monastery’s water and he had to run to shut it off. (...)

Although I do not remember exactly how many times I went to Cyprus, I do remember that I went many times. Specifically, I mention the visit and stay of over three months during the summer of 1996 for the classification of the [Matthewite] Archive of the Church of the G.O.C. and of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration, (...)

I also had continuous contact with the current Metropolitan of Kition, then Father Sebastianos, especially after his ordination as a hieromonk, when the ever-memorable Epiphanios had assigned him, whenever he celebrated the Divine Liturgy, to take me along with him so that I too could receive Holy Communion. Thus, whenever I was in Cyprus, I went with him wherever he served, and certainly also to the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration, either in the Katholikon or in the chapel of Saint Kosmas, especially after 1996 when the iconography of the Katholikon began. Thus, I am in a position to know that from the very beginning of his ordination to the priesthood in 1996, Father Sebastianos was appointed by the ever-memorable Epiphanios as the canonical and designated celebrant of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration.

In 1996 also, the ever-memorable Epiphanios asked me to help him create an "Enchiridion of Monastic Conduct" with the Canons, counsels, and Penances of the Fathers, so that the Nuns would know their duties as precisely as possible. This enchiridion would simultaneously constitute the Rule of the Monastery, replacing any other preexisting Rule. Since it mainly concerned a collection of Canons of the Fathers of the Church and other preexisting regulations, as well as his own Canons as Founder of the Holy Monastery, after providing me with the necessary texts, he told me that I could prepare it in Athens on my computer. (...)

In the winter of 2002, I was once again in Cyprus. I remember it because that day I mention was December 12th according to the ecclesiastical calendar, while for the rest of Cyprus it was Christmas and a public holiday. The ever-memorable Epiphanios sent for me, and they brought me from the Spiritual Foundation where I was staying to the Holy Hesychasterion, and he told me that he wanted me to type his will and certain appointments he had decided to make (...) After I took paper and pencil, I noted down what he dictated to me and then typed the documents. When I gave them to him, he read them, corrected certain things, and told me to make the corrections in the final texts. Thus, I finally delivered to him the texts he wanted, and he signed them in the presence of Christakis Siikkis and Andreas Stavridis, who also co-signed as witnesses to his will. (...)

I asked him, however, what he intended with these appointments and his will.

He told me approximately the following: “Basil, the Apostle Paul warned that after his departure grievous wolves would enter in, not sparing the flock. Likewise, after my own departure, I know that grievous wolves will enter, who will try to exploit the monastery, each according to his aims and interests. Therefore, I want the Holy Synod to know officially and based on evidence what is my last will and my final official actions as Founder and Abbot of the Holy Monastery, but also as Metropolitan of the Church of the G.O.C. of Cyprus. After my death, the responsibility lies with the Holy Synod, so let them do as God enlightens them.”

The ever-memorable Epiphanios, however, as I mentioned earlier, was not an ordinary personality. A man who with his own hands had dug a hundred wells to find water needed more than that to be thrown into panic, especially when he was upright and had justice on his side.

His reputation had long since surpassed the borders of the Great Island and he was known in many countries. I had read publications concerning both him and the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration in French and English, and even in Russia he was not unknown. (...)

God granted him his clarity and sharpness of mind until the end of his life, on Great Saturday, April 17, 2005, according to the Old Calendar. I saw him for the last time three months before his venerable repose. In a room of the hesychasterion, in front of the stove. He was very saddened by the situation (...) and at one moment he said to me:

— What can I do, Basil, what can I do?

— Forgive me, Despota, I replied, but what can I, a poor man, know?

— You see, Basil, in the Church we find absolute holiness side by side with absolute wickedness. Just as we find manure at the root of the rose bush, upon which we find the most beautiful and fragrant roses.

Those were the last words we exchanged. (...)

I wish to say to the honorable court that I am 75 years old and that this is the first time I am called as a witness before an honorable court. I also wish, with the help of God, that it be the last. Christians are people “wearing flesh and dwelling in the world.” It is therefore to be expected that problems arise among them. Holy Scripture tells us that even among the Holy Apostles at times there arose a “contention” (Acts 15:39).

Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul says that it is entirely improper and a “shame” for Christians to be dragged into courts at the very moment they have been called by the Savior Christ to judge the entire “world,” and even the “angels” (1 Corinthians 6:2–4). No problem is unsolvable for the Church of Christ, if we are willing to submit with humility to our Orthodox Tradition and to the Order of the Church. (...)

Basil M. Sakkas

July 3, 2009

 

Greek source: https://epistrofi-sotiria.blogspot.com/2015/08/normal-0-false-false-false-el-x-none-x.html