A Short Biography of Dionysios M. Batistatos

 

The blessed theologian Dionysios Batistatos, son of Miltiadis and Erginis, was born in Piraeus on 14 February 1921. He had one sister, Barbara Batistatos, later Nun Vryaini (+2014), abbess of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Myrtidiotissa in Stamata, Attica. He was the nephew of the venerable Elder Joseph the Hesychast and Cave-dweller (+1959), who was the brother of his mother Erginis (Erginas). Elder Joseph the Hesychast and Dionysios Batistatos, apart from their fleshly kinship, had a unique spiritual bond, the result of their mutual love and devotion to the Orthodox faith, which for both—uncle and nephew—was a faith unreserved, complete, fervent, patristic, ascetical, holy, and apostolic.

Dionysios Batistatos, from a young age, was taught the Christian duties by his very pious mother Erginis (+1952), who was a spiritual child of Elder Philotheos Zervakos (+1980) and a pupil at the Primary School of Lefkes, Paros, of the most devout Sophia, mother of Metropolitan of Florina, Augoustinos Kantiotes (+2010). He completed his secondary education in Marousi, Attica, and at the beginning of the Second World War, he was admitted to the Theological School of Athens, which he completed during the Occupation.

During the "Dekemvriana"—yet another dramatic period in the history of the Greek nation—certain circles who did not look favorably upon Dionysios' devotion to Orthodoxy, as he, though a young theologian, vehemently denounced the introduction of the new calendar in Greece, found an opportunity to accuse him of supposedly participating in the insurrectionary movement of December 1944, resulting in his arrest and detention in Egypt. He was released on the 19th of April 1945 due to a "lack of evidence of active participation in the insurrectionary movement."

In 1953 he married Louiza Kontaxi, with whom he had two children, Miltiadis (+2003) and Erginis.

He served as a teacher in schools in Athens, Piraeus, and Corinth, and retired with the rank of Gymnasiarch; and wherever he served, he left the best impressions upon colleagues and his students, many of whom still remember him today with love and respect.

He collaborated closely with the late Metropolitan Chrysostomos Kavourides, former Metropolitan of Florina (+1955), until the latter’s repose—a person who left an indelible mark upon his soul.

He also collaborated with the late shepherd Augoustinos Kantiotes, with whom he struggled for the observance of the Orthodox apostolic and patristic traditions in the Church. He preached in Greece, Great Britain, America, and Australia. During the twenty-year period 1960–1980, while serving in the Orthodox Catechetical School at the Church of Saints Athanasios, Nikolaos, and Photios in Kypseli, he became acquainted and closely connected with the then theology student, the late Fr. Georgios Metallinos (+2019), later professor at the University of Athens, who acknowledged the blessed Dionysios as a “unique teacher in the preaching of the Divine Word.” He was a founding member of the parents' school of Saint George in Nikaia and a most close collaborator of the first Metropolitan of the Metropolis of Nikaia, the late Georgios Pavlidis (+1990), who publicly admitted that “he drew strength from Batistatos in order to continue his difficult pastoral work in Nikaia.” He served for many years as director of the newspaper Orthodoxos Typos, a responsibility entrusted to him by the founder of the “Panhellenic Orthodox Union” (P.O.E.), the blessed Archimandrite Charalambos Vasilopoulos (+1982). There, on the front lines of Orthodoxos Typos, he displayed rich Christian and anti-heretical activity, having as his fellow struggler and supporter Archimandrite Markos Manolis (+2010). He offered his services for a number of years as a member of the Synodal Committee on Worship during the time of the blessed Metropolitan of Chios, Chrysostomos Gialouris. He was for a long time President of the Panhellenic Association of Friends of the Holy Sepulchre, a position which he fulfilled as a champion of the Orthodox faith and opponent of all error and heretical false doctrine.

Apart from his sermons from the pulpit, his lectures “marked the prominent platforms” of the historical “Parnassos,” the “Society of the Friends of the People,” the “Archaeological Society,” the “Piraeus Association,” and the association “Chrysostomos Stamoulis” in Thebes.

As the author of dozens of spiritually beneficial books and hundreds of articles in periodicals and newspapers, he served with his pen the two great ideals: the Truth of the Faith and the Unity of the Nation. His writings breathe the spirit of Orthodoxy and Greece!

He left an enduring legacy as a honey-tongued orator, speaking by heart and from parchment on various subjects—whether in lecture halls, at school celebrations and ecclesiastical festivals, or in humble chapels and catechetical schools.

Untiring until the end of his life, he continued the good fight, bearing without complaint the cross of illness for three years.

On May 11th (April 28th, according to the Old Calendar) of 1991, a Saturday, his soul took flight to meet our Lord, as well as his departed Fathers and Brethren, who had labored with him for betrayed Orthodoxy and our wounded Greece.

May he, from where he now is, pray for us—and may we, despite our weakness, become worthy continuators of his work...

Eternal be your memory, brother Dionysios!

 

Greek source: https://dionysiosmpatistatos.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post.html