Elder Philotheos Zervakos on the New Calendar

From a 2014 book review of Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis’ Saint Philotheos Zervakos as a Fighter and Confessor of Orthodoxy, by Nikolaos Mannes.

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The general attitude of the Elder towards the calendar issue is described by Fr. Theodoros, writing that he accepted

“economically [kat’oikonomia] the New Calendar, which does not violate doctrine nor deprive of Divine Grace, but he continued to believe and write that the Church’s acceptance of the New Calendar should not be prolonged, but that the Church should return to exactitude [akriveia] by restoring the traditional ecclesiastical Old Calendar.”

This is obviously the position of Fr. Theodoros. Of course, in our time, there is not only a calendar issue, but also the major issue of the heresy of Ecumenism. Even if the official Church restores the old calendar, if it does not renounce Ecumenism due to its work, its restoration will be in vain. However, I think that Fr. Theodoros also agrees with this.

Father Philotheos also wrote a lot about Ecumenism and Freemasonry. In fact, under his influence, he contributed at that time to the cessation of the commemoration of Athenagoras. It is no coincidence that his spiritual children were great anti-ecumenists also, such as the late Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotes, the unforgettable Photios Kontoglou and the militant publisher Stylianos Kementzetzidis, or the late Elder Chrysostomos of Spetses (who inherited all the pain of his Elder for the calendar division, as he said), the Elder Maria Myrtidiotissa from Oinousses and others.

 

Translated from the original Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/10/blog-post_20.html