Elder Kallinikos the Athonite and Hesychast (1853-1930)

by Professor Panagiotis Iliopoulos

 

This fragrant flower of the Athonite desert belongs to the great figures of contemporary Athonite monasticism. These embodied angels, through their holy way of life, have faithfully conveyed to our days all the remote and otherworldly mystical grandeur of Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm. Hesychasm is a way of life of high spirituality in Orthodox monastic practice, whereby the soul of the practicing monk becomes a source of uncreated light, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Father Kallinikos Katounakiotis, clinging for fifty-five years to the unyielding rock of Katounakia on Athos, ascended spiritually to immeasurable heights and stood there, literally suspended between heaven and earth. He became very well known for his virtue and his God-inspired wisdom. He is considered the last neptic Hesychast of Mount Athos.

Konstantinos Theiaspris (this was the name of Father Kallinikos) was born in 1853 in Athens to pious parents who were descendants of the captains of 1821. Konstantinos was a lively and intelligent child with a special love for the Church and Christian books, through the study of which he came to know the wondrous life of the ascetics of the desert of Athos.

One day in 1875, Konstantinos (22 years old) went down to Piraeus and, searching among the ships, found one departing for Mount Athos. He asked the captain to take him and assured him that he would help in any way he could. The captain took a liking to him and agreed to take him. Thus, his dream began to become a reality. The small boat was headed for the Holy Monastery of Iviron, and the journey lasted several days. During the voyage, his thoughts alternated between envisioning the long-desired Athos and battling attacks of doubtful thoughts about leaving his family and friends behind.

All of this, however, dissolved like smoke when he beheld Athos with its scattered monasteries, sketes, and cells amidst the lush Athonite landscape. The ship docked at the Holy Monastery of Iviron. He bade farewell to the captain and hurriedly made his way to the monastery. With emotion, he venerated the miraculous icon of the Theotokos Portaitissa, which he had read about in books, and he prayed to her for guidance and protection on where he should go. He received information about the desert of Katounakia and reached there after several hours of walking.

Seeking a virtuous elder, the young admirer of the ascetic life found the distinguished Hesychast Fr. Daniel. Elder Daniel could not believe that this pampered young man with an Athenian upbringing would endure the harsh life of the desert. After praying, he agreed to keep him as a novice. From his elder, he learned wood carving as a handiwork. The entire conduct of the young novice gave Elder Daniel the right to tonsure him a monk with the name Kallinikos.

Sensing his departure from this vain world, Elder Daniel had no doubt about entrusting his rich Hesychastic experience to the shoulders of Fr. Kallinikos. During the time Fr. Kallinikos was initiated into the mysteries of noetic prayer and the contemplative life, he felt an inner warmth, holy awe, and deep emotion. Elder Daniel, satisfied with his disciple, prayed to the Lord, "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word...".

He was also distinguished by an excessive inclination for study. He zealously devoted himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, among whom the neptic Fathers held a prominent place: Hesychius the Presbyter, Isaac the Syrian, Gregory Palamas, and others. His favored reading also included the Philokalia. Being sharp-witted and eager to learn, he undertook the study of the Russian language on his own. In a short period, he managed to speak and write in Russian.

Apart from study, Fr. Kallinikos was greatly captivated by solitude and stillness. Occasionally, they had to go to Daphne for necessities. The journey was usually made by boat. However, he preferred the long and strenuous hike to avoid the chatter on the boat. As his footsteps echoed through the ravines and mountain passes, he prayed unceasingly. At other times, gazing upon the enchanting Athonite nature and the vast expanse of the Aegean, he would raise his hands to glorify Him who "has made all things in wisdom."

The spirit of self-restraint prevailed daily. He and his disciples lived with simplicity. With a single can of oil, they sustained themselves for the entire year, using it both for food and for the vigil lamps. On weekends, he would add a small cup of oil to their food. Once, when a vigil was about to take place, the fathers asked him if they could have some coffee. His reply was, "If we are going to keep vigils with medicine, we might as well go to sleep." Simplicity and humility were evident at first glance.

He avoided publicity and vainglory in every way. On the day he partook of Holy Communion, he would remain confined to his cell until evening. Of his 55 years of ascetic life, 45 were spent in seclusion within his cell and a small area around it. In this limited space, he lived for 45 years!

When a serious need arose, he would raise a piece of cloth on a long pole, like a flag. The monks would see it and come to his aid. This heroic decision was accompanied by total dedication to the contemplative life of watchfulness and noetic prayer.

It is worth noting here that the silkworm does not produce silk unless it is enclosed in its cocoon. In this exalted spiritual state, which few are deemed worthy to attain, the practical life recedes. Action yields to contemplation, and tasks, obediences, and handiworks fade away.

Abba Isaac the Syrian blesses those who have reached this state. "Blessed," writes the holy father, "is he who remains in stillness and is not disturbed by the multitude of his works, but has turned all bodily actions into the labor of prayer." (Ascetical Homily 23). Engagement with earthly matters and worldly concerns had no place for one who embraced watchfulness and unceasing prayer. "Therefore," exhorts St. Nilus the Hermit, "let not the purity of virtue be soiled by thoughts of worldly matters, nor let the sincerity of contemplation be disturbed by physical concerns."

He never opened his mouth to ask, not even out of courtesy, the numerous visitors, "What news from the world?" Every inquisitive inclination and idle talk had to be suppressed, even if the world were perishing. The one struggling spiritually should not divert their mind from spiritual contemplation, entrusting everything to the providential God.

The virtue and reputation of the Hesychast Kallinikos guided the steps of a prominent figure of the time, Spyridon Menayas, later Fr. Gerasimos, an aristocrat, wealthy, renowned chemist, and graduate of the University of Zurich, to abandon the world and become his disciple (1920).

Among the many who approached him was the renowned Joseph the Cave-Dweller. However, only a few were accepted as disciples. His reputation as a discerning and enlightened elder attracted a multitude of people seeking an inspired answer to their problems. Disciples, elders, hermits, cenobites, laypeople, lawyers, military personnel, police officers, Greeks, Russians—the entire Mount Athos turned to the reclusive Hesychast of Katounakia to receive his blessing and hear his wise counsels. He also received countless letters from those unable to visit him in person.

The uncreated light, which only a few have been deemed worthy to behold—the same light that illumined Moses, the three disciples on Mount Tabor, Paul on his way to Damascus, Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Gregory Palamas, and many other Fathers—was also granted to Elder Kallinikos.

Eyewitnesses recount that they saw the countenance of the God-bearing and light-bearing Elder Kallinikos shining, aligning with the words of Saint Symeon the New Theologian: "I partake of the light, I share in the glory, and my face shines as that of my Beloved, and all my members become radiant. Then I become more beautiful than the beautiful." The renowned hymnographer Fr. Gerasimos Mikragiannitis, who had Elder Kallinikos as his spiritual guide, narrated how he saw him shining entirely with a light from another world and emitting an ineffable fragrance.

To this enlightened ascetic, false teachings, delusions, heresies, and innovations could not go unnoticed. In 1913, the delusion of the Name-Worshippers appeared on Mount Athos among the Russian monks, a deception that escaped everyone's attention (Gabriel Dionysiates, p. 32). Elder Kallinikos stood alone as their opponent. The Tsar and the Patriarch congratulated him and sent him medals, two of which are preserved with Saint Gerasimos.

The figure of the Hesychast Kallinikos was a unique blessing from God for Athos. A fiery pillar rose in that desolate ravine of Katounakia by the sea, radiating light to those sailing the sea of life. Distinguished individuals stood in awe of his spiritual greatness. The Russian ascetic Fr. Parthenios, a former general of the Tsarist army, and the hieromonk Theodosios, a former rector of a Russian university, greatly honored him and visited him frequently. The learned monk Fr. Athanasios from the Lavra, a renowned doctor, famous and prolific, sought counsel from Fr. Kallinikos.

When King Constantine I, captivated by the works of the prominent writer Alexandros Moraitidis, decided to award him a royal decoration, the devout writer turned to Elder Kallinikos, and only when Fr. Kallinikos agreed did he accept the royal honor.

In 1913, in the Russian religious journal The Christian (Issue 11), impressions from Mount Athos were published by the Russian Fr. Panteleimon, a professor at the Theological Academy of St. Sergius (near Moscow), who had toured Mount Athos for six months in 1912. There, the Russian professor mentions Fr. Kallinikos: "I also met another ascetic who, in a remarkable way, combined spiritual experience and prudence with rare love and kindness towards people. He shares his spiritual wealth with great love, even with the Russian monks who seek words of consolation and teaching from him. Not only monks but also Russian hierarchs turned to Fr. Kallinikos."

The Metropolitan of Trikki and Stagoi, Dionysios, writes about him: "Seeing him, he gave the impression of being filled with the Spirit and that the grace of God rested upon him. You beheld a venerable, imposing, holy figure. He was a complete spiritual man, measured and serious in his words, with clear thought. He is truly an ascetic of the desert, a citizen of heaven, and an angel in the flesh."

Kallinikos is considered a great resurgence of Hesychasm. He reached heights of contemplation and was deemed worthy of divine illuminations during the practice of noetic prayer, writes Monk Erastus (p. 48). On August 7, 1930, the reclusive Hesychast of the desert of Katounakia departed for the beloved dwellings of the Lord.

The final hours of his life were exceptionally holy, a fitting conclusion to his angelic life. Sensing the end approaching, he said to his disciple, "Go, my child, and prepare the church. The venerable Fathers have arrived." For ten minutes before his soul departed, he gazed in awe at the holy figures welcoming him. Then he was heard to murmur softly, "I thank You, my God, that I am dying Orthodox. I have done nothing in my life," and he passed away peacefully, humbly, and saintly.

With the onset of the 20th century, a peculiar entity emerged within the Church—a strange monster, Ecumenism. According to it, no religion possesses the full truth. Each religion holds a part of the truth. Complete truth will arise from the union of churches and religions (Pan-religion, Ecumenism). Various figures have described Ecumenism as a pan-heresy (Justin Popovich).

The first step of Ecumenism was the change of the Calendar, as is evident from the Patriarchate's encyclical of 1920 and the proceedings of the Constantinople conference in 1923, in order for the Orthodox to celebrate together with the Papists. Thus, in 1923, the innovator Patriarch of Constantinople, Meletios Metaxakis, dared to implement the disastrous calendar change. The entire Mount Athos (except for the Vatopedi Monastery for some time) has maintained the old (Julian) calendar to this day. A significant group of monks (Zealots) also ceased commemorating the innovative Patriarch.

The enlightened Elder Kallinikos could not remain indifferent in the face of this unprecedented betrayal of the faith. To him, as the wisest and holiest, the concerned fathers turned for counsel on what actions to take. Interpreting the Scriptures without hesitation or doubt and based on the Holy Fathers and the 15th Canon of the First-Second Council, he advised them to cease commemorating the innovator Patriarch Meletios Metaxakis. In one such assembly, he characterized the opinion against ceasing commemoration of the Patriarch as a "demonic delusion." (Maximos Agiovasileiatis, "Denunciation of Athonite Fathers," Mount Athos, 1997, p. 160).

The position of the blessed Elder Kallinikos regarding the Ecumenist innovation of the calendar change is evident in the following incident: "Once, there was someone who wanted to become a priest, and he wrote a confessional letter and sent it to Fr. Kallinikos. The Elder said to his disciples, 'Write to the brother that he is in a pit of mire, clapping his hands and shouting for us to make him a king. Let him first come out of the pit of the New Calendar innovation, be cleansed, and then we shall see if he is worthy to become a king.'" (Damaskinos, Monk).

He used to receive the religious periodical ZOE. However, when the calendar change occurred, he immediately returned the magazine. One could say that Elder Kallinikos played, in our times, the role of Saint Mark of Ephesus, Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Gregory Palamas, and other struggling Fathers, who, in critical moments for the Church, stood as the sole defenders of Orthodoxy.

From the presented evidence, it becomes clear that Saint Elder Kallinikos Katounakiotis, the reclusive Hesychast, is a hidden, contemporary great figure of the Athonite Desert who denounced the heresy of the Latins, Papism, and the modern pan-heresy of Ecumenism.

May we have his blessing.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Archim. Cherubim, Kallinikos the Hesychast, Oropos, Attica, 2006. (Primary reference).
• Monk Erastus, Two Contemporary Saints, Athens, 1961.
• Maximos Agiovasileiatis, Denunciation of Athonite Fathers, Mount Athos, 1997.
• Athonite Echo, 1924.
• Gabriel Dionysiates, Lausaicon, Volos, 1953.
• Monk Damaskinos Agiovasileiatis, Journal "St. Agathangelos the Esphigmenite", vol. 74, 1982.
• Archim. Justin Popovich, Orthodox Church and Ecumenism, Athens, 1974.

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