Homily at the Synodal Vespers of the Feast of Saint Chrysostomos the New Confessor

Holy Church of Saint Chrysostomos

Keratsini, Piraeus

Thursday, September 5/18, 2024

by His Grace Bishop Kallinikos of Talantion

 

Your Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and Primate of our Church in Greece, Kallinikos,

Your Eminence Shepherd of the God-saved Holy Metropolis of Piraeus and Salamis, Gerontios,

Your Eminences, Hierarchs,

Honorable Presbytery,

Venerable Diaconate,

Pious and festal-loving Christians,

The entire Militant and Martyric Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians on Earth today honors and celebrates the memory of that good Shepherd, who "laid down his life for the sheep" so that the spiritual heritage and the Faith of the Holy Fathers might be preserved in our land, in our blessed Homeland, where exactly one hundred years ago, in 1924, certain individuals sought to usurp and undermine it, as well as to divide the Church by overthrowing the dogma of the Unity of the Orthodox.

Tonight and tomorrow, we honor the Pillar of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, the "Holy President"—as the champions of piety called him—the Metropolitan from Imbros, from Pelagonia, and formerly of Florina, who later became the Primate and High Priest of our Church, Chrysostomos Kavourides, the New Confessor (+1955),

We honor:

The Guide and Helmsman of the uninnovated pleroma,

The Great and Venerable Man,

The Guardian of the unforgettable Helleno-Orthodox Phanariote Tradition,

The Vigilant Sentinel of Orthodoxy,

The Heroic Champion of the Patristic Piety,

The Courageous Confessor of Genuine Orthodoxy,

The Contemporary Hesychast Father of the center of Athens,

Our Spiritual Father and Predecessor,

We owe deep gratitude to his Great Figure, who for twenty consecutive years (1935–1955), even at an advanced age, bore the good Witness in Orthodox Confession and a God-pleasing Way of Life with a Martyric Mindset. And those years were difficult, yet what made the situation of the Great Hierarch even more challenging were not the exiles, the persecution, and the slanders from the Innovators. All these he endured without complaint and even with joy, living in his life the Pauline saying: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter’ (Rom. 8:35-36)." Moreover, he had absolute awareness and consciousness as an Orthodox Hierarch, who sacrifices himself for his flock.

What troubled Saint Chrysostomos the most were the self-interest and extreme positions of certain clergymen, who ultimately separated, as well as the constant interference of secular individuals who lacked spirituality and respect for ecclesiastical affairs. And, of course, history repeats itself to this day, where unfortunately disobedient and self-seeking clergymen, along with self-seeking laypeople, undermine Unity and cultivate divisive tendencies and extreme positions within our ranks, which have no connection to the Ecclesiology and Ethos of Saint Chrysostomos! How much patience did this forgiving Hierarch exercise to preserve the Unity of the Genuine Orthodox, and how much patience and struggle would he undertake even today to safeguard this longed-for Unity!

A distinctive trait of his character was discernment and gentleness; it is noteworthy that even when speaking to small children, the Saint used the formal plural. Even towards the Innovators, the Saint sought to respond with ecclesiastical decorum, Christian love, and conciliation, striving, if possible, to restore the Unity of the Orthodox and to reinstate the ecclesiastical calendar in worship.

A son of blessed Thrace, a man of profound education, a graduate of the once-glorious Theological School of Halki, trained in both ecclesiastical and secular learning, cultivated, selfless, and dignified, immensely prolific in writing and highly eloquent, an embodiment of the magnanimity, nobility, and patriotism of the Phanariote Tradition, a most profound theologian and, in both deed and word, a demolisher of the ecumenistic Calendar Innovation, he shone as a Luminary in the World.

Our Lord Jesus Christ glorified him in return with a blessed end—we all remember the vision of the other Saint of our Church, John the New Merciful, in which Saints John the Forerunner and John the Theologian were preparing a heavenly throne for Saint Chrysostomos! He also glorified him through the revelation of his sacred and grace-filled Relics, treasured in the Holy Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Parnitha, as a source of divine signs and miracles.

Allow me, in conclusion, to mention a few excerpts from the writings and words of our Great Saint: "My entire past guarantees the pure and noble motives of my whole Hierarchical conduct... With self-denial and steadfastness, disregarding entirely thrones, rewards, tranquility, and even exile itself in the twilight of life, we have courageously and fearlessly engaged in this arduous and toilsome, yet glorious and sacred struggle, so that... we might preserve the Orthodox and time-honored authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Autocephalous Greek Church... We prefer, as representatives of the deeper moral essence of the Church, to be persecuted and to suffer, bravely and faithfully fighting upon the adamantine ramparts of Orthodoxy, rather than to be praised and glorified by men, betraying and bartering away the sacred Deposit of the Nation and the Church."

A characteristic instance is his response to the then Archbishop of the Dominant Church, Spyridon Vlachos, who attempted, under the pretext of their friendship, to persuade him to abandon the struggle for the Old Calendar, offering him the promise of being reinstated to a Metropolis and receiving his salary again, including retroactive payments. "Your Beatitude, strive to unite the Church by restoring to it the traditional Festal Calendar so that the Orthodox Christians may find peace. I have no interest in pensions or money, nor will I, for their sake, decide to violate my conscience, especially now in the twilight of my life. It is utterly false that the Old Calendarists have dissolved or are dissolving; on the contrary, their religious fervor is being strengthened like steel. But even if, hypothetically, all the Old Calendarists were to drift toward the New Calendar, as you claim, and only one Old Calendarist remained, that one would be me."

Especially today, in the year 2024, marking one hundred years since the calendar innovation, our Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians remains here and continues the work of Saint Chrysostomos—its pastoral, missionary, and salvific work—struggling against the Pan-heresy of Ecumenism, as well as all these innovations and the secularization that, unfortunately, has also infiltrated the ecclesiastical sphere. Today, the common celebration of Pascha with the Latins is being promoted, along with the complete violation and abolition of the Paschal Canon, which has been in force and established for nearly two millennia by the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea.

Saint Chrysostomos was exiled, sacrificed, scorned, humiliated, and slandered, yet he remained steadfast in the faith until the end. We, the heirs of his sacrifice and struggles, beseech him today to intercede for all of us, that we may firmly resist all innovations and uphold the Confession of Faith until the end, remaining at the height of our great mission and on the path that he himself has traced.

Rejoicing and exulting today, as Saint Chrysostomos the New Confessor is honored, are Saint Ieronymos of Aegina and his namesake Ieronymos of Parnitha, Saint Catherine the New Martyr of Mandra, Saint Joseph the New Martyr from Desfina, Saint John of Amfiali the New Merciful, and the entire Choir of Newly-Revealed Saints.

The great-voiced Assembly of the Orthodox rejoices and exults today, both here in Greece and abroad, throughout the entire world wherever Genuine Orthodoxy exists.

But thou, O Venerable Elder, Saint Chrysostomos, New Confessor, remember all of us who are in need; remember our struggling and Martyric Church; remember the little Flock of Christ the Chief Shepherd, our Beatitude Archbishop and the Holy Hierarchs, the sacred clergy, the monastic order, and the pious remnant of the Orthodox. Remember all of us in the Heavenly Kingdom of the Triune God, that Kingdom which shall have no end.

 

Greek source: https://www.ecclesiagoc.gr/index.php/%E1%BC%84%CF%81%CE%B8%CF%81%CE%B1/%E1%BC%90%CE%BA%CE%BA%CE%BB%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AC/2289-omilia-talantiou-peri-agxrisostomou-neouomologitou-2024