From the Great Horologion: Life of St. Ieronymos the New of Aegina

THE LIFE OF ST. IERONYMOS THE NEW OF AEGINA

 

The Elder Ieronymos of Aegina was born in 1883 in Kelveri, a village of Cappadocia, to Turkish-speaking Christians, and was named Basil by his parents. Inspired by the prayerful examples of his pious mother, the village priest John, and the layman Misael, he grew up with prayer and a strong predisposition to life in the Church and monasticism. Because of his conspicuously godly way of life he was ordained deacon, but the rich and powerful citizens of the village opposed him, fearing that under his influence their children might renounce the world to become monastics. The opposition became so bitter that he chose to give way to wrath and depart to the Holy Land, arriving there in 1911 at the age of twenty-eight.

He lived as a monk at the Monastery of the Forerunner near the Jordan River, but not finding spiritual guides of the caliber he had known in Cappadocia, he went to Constantinople, hoping to find a good spiritual father there. At Constantinople he was again disappointed in his hope. Rather than finding a spiritual person to guide him, he himself became a guide to many of the faithful through the fiery sermons he gave and the living example he provided of a man of prayer, drawing them to a deeper spiritual life.

In 1922, with the victory of the Turkish Nationalist forces over the Greek army and the ensuing destruction, Father Basil left for Greece, ultimately settling on the island of Aegina, where he spent the rest of his life. Here he distinguished himself as an incomparable man of prayer and fearless servant of Christ always ready to lay down his life for his neighbour. When an epidemic of tuberculosis struck fear into all, to the point that a man who died of it was left unburied in a boat because even his own family feared the contagion, Father Basil, accompanied by a priestmonk of like strong faith, retrieved his body and buried it, not regarding the risk to themselves.

While completely devoted to the life of prayer, his love for his neighbour did not permit him to ignore the needs of the suffering. He laboured greatly to aid in equipping the newly-built hospital in Aegina to meet the needs of the sick, and often visited them in the hospital, comforting them in their sufferings and giving them courage to face their trials as true Christians.

By constraint, he was ordained to the priesthood, but soon after, while serving the Divine Liturgy, he had a vision of the holy Mysteries as the very Flesh and Blood of Christ that was so overwhelming that in his humility he took it as a sign of his unworthiness to serve as priest, and obtained permission to retire from actively serving the Liturgy.

Tonsured a monk in 1923 on Mount Athos, Father Basil received the name Ieronymos (Hieronymus / Jerome). Continuing his ministry on Aegina, he became the spiritual guide and Father confessor first to many on Aegina, then to many throughout Greece. He was both a great doer of mercy, daily visiting the sick and poor and distressed, and a great man of prayer, who dug out secret rooms in which to pray undisturbed, sometimes keeping his mind in his heart in intense mental prayer as long as fourteen hours straight.

After the State Church of Greece adopted the New Calendar in 1924, the Elder Ieronymos did not immediately separate himself over this issue, though he saw that with the change of the calendar came a change of traditional practices and an increasing worldliness. In 1942, when the Metropolitan of Aegina wanted to compel him to con- celebrate with him according to the New Calendar, Father Ieronymos took the occasion to "proclaim the Patristic Calendar to be the correct one" and, without fanaticism or judging others, he left the State Church and remained faithful to the Patristic Calendar for the rest of his life.

In 1945, during the occupation of Greece in World War II, his left forearm was so seriously wounded by the explosion of a hand grenade left behind by a German soldier that it had to be amputated. His faith in God was so invincible that he never grew faint- hearted or questioned why God had allowed him to lose his hand, but prayed, "Lord, I had nothing when I came into the world. Thou broughtest me into being, Thou hast given me all. May Thy Name be glorified. May it be done unto me however it is pleasing to Thy Grace. If it is to the profit of my soul, take my other hand too." Later, he would tell visitors, "Better with one hand in Paradise, than with two in hell.... Suffering is a gift of God." His eardrums were also broken by the same explosion, and he would have been completely deaf for the rest of his life, had not the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, for whom he had a special reverence from his childhood, appeared to him in a vision in his sleep dressed like monks and given him an injection. When he awoke, he could hear again.

The Elder Ieronymos's clairvoyance, and his very presence, brought people to compunction, a perception of their own sins, and even outright fear. Often his visitors were so struck with awe that they could not open their mouth to tell him what they wanted; but he, in the course of talking to them, would touch on everything they had hidden in their heart and answer all their questions. He confided to some of his spiritual children that he had prayed that God would allow him to have a very painful case of cancer that would purify him of all earthly stain and through the suffering would make him entirely God's, which prayer was heard. On October 3, 1966, after virtually martyric sufferings from lung cancer, the Elder Ieronymos, having fought the good fight, and being illuminated by divine grace, smiled, said "Glory to Thee, O God," and went to his eternal rest.

- The Great Horologion, Revised Second Edition (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 2020), October 3.