1964 Letter of Archimandrite Chrysostomos (Kiousis) to Archbishop Leonty of Chile

From the Archive of Archbishop Chrysostomos (Kiousis) of Athens.

Published source: Η Αλληλογραφια του αρχιεπισκοπου Λεοντιου Φιλιπποβιτσ με τουσ ελληνεσ παλαιοημερολογιτεσ (1961-1969) [The Correspondence of Archbishop Leontios Filippovich with the Greek Old Calendarists (1961-1969)], by Nikolaos Mannis, Athens, 2022, Letter 79, pp. 216-218.

 

Holy Monastery of Panachrantos, Megara, August 14, 1964

Your Eminence, Holy One of Chile, kyr Leonty.

Humbly bowing, I kiss Your right hand with longing. Through Your prayers, we are in good health together with the small flock of our brotherhood, which through me offers its respects. I received Your letter of the 23rd of the past month, and I respond out of duty.

The situation here worsens daily. Our bishops do not govern our Church according to Christ. They rule autocratically and tyrannically. They have lost humility and everything spiritual. I wrote to You that we were reconciled and were cooperating, but they—despite the fact that, with the help of God, I strove to offer them such a great gift that they had not even seen in their dreams—nonetheless, their behavior toward me was anything but brotherly. They did not acknowledge even a trace of gratitude but treated me in the harshest and most ungrateful manner, at first expelling me from the offices and lately even from my parish, in which, by the grace of Christ, I too had offered something for the glory of God and the good of our struggle, and not for my own promotion.

To the many evils they caused me in the past, they added also the accusation that I agree with the laity in the election of bishops—though this is Your own opinion as well. They created many incidents for me in the church where I serve. They have turned it into a police state and sent the police to my church every Sunday, so that the people left in indignation, remembering the years of persecution. Then we were persecuted by the New Calendar bishops, and now by the Old Calendarists—and all this in order to stifle the voice of the people, who have grown weary of them because it has been heard that they have scattered promises to uneducated and spiritually untrained priests that they will make them bishops. Woe then to our Church. Because of them, no good and educated clergyman comes near us—not even Fr. Augustinos Kantiotis, nor any other virtuous man.

The end result is that they expelled me from the church where I was serving in the most inhuman manner—both myself and an excellent chanter, a blind monk, [Monk Dositheos Paraskevaïdis, +1991] who for 30 years served our struggle, without giving a thought as to how this unfortunate man would survive, he who is all alone in this world. I now find myself at my monastery as a private individual, and I thank God because He is testing me with the harsh trial of human ingratitude. May He not abandon me, but rather forgive my sins through this small trial and strengthen me in His fear and make me perfect in my duty.

To Your Eminence I appeal, because You are our spiritual leader, and in my humble understanding, You must once again show noble willingness to save the situation—especially now that we also have Metropolitan kyr Philaret as our own. From my small experience, I foresaw that it was not possible for our Church to see good days with those persons who govern it, because I cooperated with them for a sufficient time and came to know them well. But, so as not to give rise to misunderstanding, I did not speak. Now, however, as the evil worsens daily with incalculable damage, it is imperative to find the man who will save our struggle from dissolution. We think well of our beloved former brother Fr. Petros, now Bishop of Astoria. But the envy of men has left nothing standing. The evil of envy among our Hierarchs is terrible. They have driven from our offices all good and God-fearing persons and installed people capable only of doing harm. Such persons they installed even in my church, in order to create disturbances—people who went so far as to threaten me with murder, being moved by malice. Thus they hated Petros of Astoria and slander him, although Akakios [Pappas] the Elder wrote to me from America—at a time when I was General Secretary of our Church and had responsibly undertaken his case—and he wrote to me, I say, to see to it at all cost to send to New York a signed petition of our Church for his consecration, because he is a good and zealous priest and useful for our struggle, and must certainly be ordained bishop together with him [Akakios the Elder]. There is no need, then, for deliberation, Holy One of Chile, but for a decision in accordance with God, for the evil is advancing here and the people of the provinces are indignant. I pray that God enlighten You toward the most beneficial course, since He has appointed You for the cause of our Church. As for what concerns Mount Athos, I will do whatever is possible on my part. I heard that permission will be granted for the settlement of 50 Russian monks in the Russian monasteries. I personally know Fr. Nikodim [of Karoulia]. We spoke at length concerning Your Eminence. I will see to sending Your note. I may even go myself to meet Fr. Georgios.

I kiss Your right hand and remain in expectation of Your reply.

Archimandrite Chrysostomos Kiousis