Recollections of Elder Adrianos of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai (+2004)

When he first came to reside at the Holy Monastery of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Phyle, Attica, we were all waiting for him with childlike impatience and reverent patience. We had heard many wondrous things from the dentist brother George P., who had hosted him in the past, several times in his home. He was "a sight to behold!"

"Fr. Adrianos, why did you leave Sinai?" various visitors of the Monastery would ask him.

"Because, my child, even the Monastery of Saint Catherine has been taken over by the ecumenists. Archbishop Damianos was constantly bringing heretical Catholics, Monophysites, Anglicans. On Sundays, during the Divine Liturgy, all these people were present beside the episcopal throne and 'defiled' the House of God. We could no longer endure what was happening. I said… 'Fr. Adrianos, this is not Orthodoxy, this is a friendship with wolves.' I decided to wall myself off from the heresy, which now defiles everything, and to come close to our brethren of the Patristic Calendar, who are the only ones, by word and deed, who faithfully uphold the traditions of our Church."

His confessions on Saturdays, in the small chapel of Saint Kosmas of Aetolia, beneath the old katholikon, will remain unforgettable. Lines of people, who patiently waited for hours, to confess or to receive a blessing.

Sister Helen M. recounted how, when she mentioned to him the problem with her husband, who did not believe in God and cursed all day, sitting in front of a television, he said to her, half-smiling:

"Tell him that tomorrow night he will see, in front of the television… the one who makes him blaspheme against God…"

The following day, around 11:00, as the sister recounted, she was in the kitchen when she suddenly heard deafening sounds like those of many animals shaking the entire house. When she went to the living room, she found her husband coldly silent, as if he had lost his voice, groaning and pointing to the television.

Terrified, she saw, above the television… the devil in the form of a small doll, making a prostration and saying to him:

"Thank you, that again today you listened to me and did what I wanted. And tell that… monk," he said to the woman, "that I will not leave from here, because your husband brought me…"

Fr. Adrianos was poorly educated, yet rich in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

"Know that these are times when the chaff is separated from the wheat. The few gather in the small sheepfold and the many are in the large one. Be patient, because these are years of Antichrist. He has fashioned Ecumenism, which is his own religion, and he has in his service Patriarchs, Archbishops, Metropolitans, monks, priests, and a multitude of laypeople... At first, they will tell you that it is not bad for us all to be united together, and then they will tell you that it is not bad to take the mark, because Christ is in our hearts… They will deceive you by distorting the Fathers and will present to you… new ones, who will be entirely their own. They will perform wondrous signs; people will run to them to hear prophetic things so as to be led astray. Do not listen to them. If you remain in the traditions of our Church and in what the God-bearing Fathers taught us, the Holy Spirit will guide you."

To the late old lady, Mrs. Eucharis, a former sister of the Monastery, he confided:

"Your repentance was very great. Remember where you were and where you are now. You have labored greatly, my sister, on the path of virtues. Soon you will receive your reward…"

Mrs. Eucharis fell asleep a few days later, after she had first confided to our father the things that Fr. Adrianos had told her.

Fr. Adrianos prayed unceasingly. He always had an old, thick, woolen prayer rope wrapped around his hand and continuously said the Prayer. To the monks of the Monastery, he had discreetly revealed things that they later saw fulfilled in their lives. To us, who were deemed worthy to live close to him, we will always remember his simple and humble word.

God especially graced him with the talent of calligraphy and painting. Whatever object he took into his hand, he would turn into gold. Dry gourds, pieces of wood, stones — he would paint them in a particularly beautiful, ornamental way, almost always depicting monasteries, cells, and sketes from Mount Athos.

 

Greek source: https://353agios.blogspot.com/2014/06/blog-post_17.html