The Lonely Path of the Holy President, St. Chrysostomos the New

Nikolaos Mannis | September 19, 2025

 

This year marks 70 years since the repose of the "Holy President," as he was called by his pious followers, Metropolitan Chrysostomos Kavourides, formerly of Florina (+1955). A Saint who has not yet been vindicated...

His solitary path began when, with dreadful courage, as a new Atlas of the Church, he resolved to shoulder the burden of shepherding the Greek Orthodox faithful who did not accept the calendar innovation of 1924, known as the "Old Calendarists," who had begun to veer into extremes and were in danger of degenerating into a condemnable Schism, which ultimately was not avoided by a portion of them (the Matthewites, etc.).

On this path, he was fiercely fought not only by the Innovators (who exiled him twice), but also by the very ones who called themselves "Genuine Orthodox," who slandered him as a "traitor," a "Uniate," and a "heretic," because he did not wish to usurp the judgment of the Ecumenical (Pan-Orthodox) Council and proclaim the indicted Innovators — and even more so their followers, who acted in good faith — as being "outside the Church."

And today the path shown by the former Metropolitan of Florina, St. Chrysostomos, remains solitary, for among his successors, only a few adopted his positions; the majority aligned themselves with his slanderers.

When, a few decades ago, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Phyle composed (with the invaluable assistance of Aristotle Delimbasis, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century according to our ever-blessed Elder, Fr. Chrysostomos Spyrou of Spetses) the renowned dogmatic monument Ecclesiological Theses (1984), which constitutes the handed-down teaching of the former Metropolitan of Florina, St. Chrysostomos, none of his opponents ever managed to refute this text. They simply resorted to their usual weapons: distortion, slander, and "deposition" (orchestrated by the well-known inquisitorial/judicial/deposing duo of [Metropolitans] Kalliopios–Kallinikos).

Today, one observes the tragicomic phenomenon of people honoring the former Metropolitan of Florina Chrysostomos as a Saint, while at the same time speaking of the “heresy of Cyprianism.” And yet, as certain Serbian Matthewites had rightly observed, “Kyprianos Koutsoumbas, who (rightly) claims to be the sole authentic successor of Chrysostomos of Florina, adopted and developed only the teaching which was first formulated and preached by Metropolitan Chrysostomos himself” (https://gnisios.narod.ru/florina.html). These Matthewites, of course, distort the teaching by falsely claiming that he preached that “the New Calendar Church is the Mother Church,” a teaching accepted neither by the holy former Metropolitan of Florina nor by Metropolitan Cyprian, who regarded the Autocephalous Church of Greece as the Mother Church in concept and as an institution, and not the innovating Governing Hierarchy thereof.

Every present-day Hierarch, in order to be considered a true successor of the former Metropolitan of Florina, St. Chrysostomos, must be possessed of the same outlook as he: a focus on the principal aim of the Sacred Struggle, which is none other than the convocation of an Ecumenical or Pan-Orthodox Council (the only competent authority to resolve ecclesiastical matters lawfully and definitively), or, as it has otherwise been expressed, the "awakening of the synodal conscience of the Church, so that it may confront the innovation of Ecumenism and that the divided Church may be reunited in the Orthodoxy of the Faith."

(https://www.imoph.org/Theology_el/3a3007Themata.pdf)

[English translation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1kmphsNVFP5ODdWT1g1aDA2aUk/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-y6PW4ZCvCNr47CTjRc6WIw]

To those who mockingly shake their heads at such an assertion (with the familiar question, “and who will convene this Council?”), let us remind them that Saint Maximos the Confessor reposed in the year 662 in utter isolation (while all the Local Churches had fallen into heresy), and it was not until 680 that the Sixth Ecumenical Council was convened, which vindicated him by condemning the heresy and its proponents. And who convened that Council? The successors of those very heretics who had condemned Saint Maximos... Therefore, “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God”!

In summary, it is evident that the due honor toward the former Metropolitan of Florina, St. Chrysostomos, is not rendered through annual hierarchical celebrations, but through actions that must be undertaken based on his own anguish, desire, and expectation. That is to say, only the members of the Church — and chiefly its prominent ones (Hierarchs, Archimandrites, etc.) — who strive for the convocation of a Pan-Orthodox Council truly and substantially honor the Saint (even if they be New Calendarists), rather than those who seemingly “honor” him, yet in practice stand with the faction of his enemies.

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2025/09/blog-post_19.html