Metropolitan Demetrius of America: Elder Ephraim of Arizona and the Old Calendar Zealots

The untold story of miracles and holy men

 

 

A transcript of a talk by His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrios of America (GOC-K) in response to a question regarding the book "My Elder Joseph the Hesychast" by Elder Ephraim of Arizona. The talk can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rDMZyVC2R0 . 

Transcribed by Michael Chacra.

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PART 1: 0:00 – 4:15

…With all due respect, certain things need to be clarified with regards to statements made by Elder Ephraim of Arizona in his book called “My Elder Joseph the Hesychast”. He’s got a section in there about the Old Calendarists, about the zealots. And Father Ephraim claims that Father (Elder) Joseph stated that the zealots are “planamenoi”, meaning that they are in delusion, or deceived. And this is a very general statement, and it is problematic for Fr. Joseph himself, if he really made this statement, because just a day before Elder Joseph was a zealot himself. So it creates a Gordian knot [a complex unsolvable problem – Transcriber] and there is a reason why Elder Joseph was a zealot, was because he discovered that the righteous fathers of the holy mountain of Athos who have progressed in prayer, who knew something about the hesychastic life, who knew something about the power of the Jesus Prayer, were themselves zealot fathers.

Those fathers themselves are actually mentioned by name in his book. For example, Elder Kallinikos the Hesychast (of Katounakia). Elder Kallinikos was a practitioner of the Jesus Prayer, and he was a true hesychast. He lived in Katounakia, in the desert region of Mount Athos, and he was – if anyone would be called a hesychast – he was the hesychast of the time. He was THE hesychast. And he was a zealot. And I would say that he was probably one of the stricter types of the zealots. Because the zealots were divided into two factions. The Old Calendarists were either Matthewites or Florinites. Of course, at this time, Mathew himself was not ordained bishop. But the difference between the two was that the Matthewites were the ultra-conservatives who believed that the New Calendarists all were graceless from 1924 onwards. And the Florinites were called Florinites because they were the followers of [St.] Metropolitan Chrysostomos, formerly the bishop of Florina, who stated that you can’t really come up with such conclusions so fast.

But Elder Kallinikos was of the stricter faction. He believed that the New Calendarists were graceless. In fact, there is a famous quote that is referenced to him. Apparently, he said that the New Calendar baptism is a bath and not baptism. And of course, for us that sounds very extreme, especially at that time. But anyhow, he was a holy man. A god-bearer really. As someone who really understood the power of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So much so that his mind was so illumined that at the time of heresy he was ready to defend the Orthodox Church.

There was another holy elder that was mentioned there, Elder Daniel, who belonged to Megisti Lavra, the monastery of the Great Lavra, but he wasn’t a monk of the monastery. He was a monk in one of the kellia, one of the cells, and he was a hesychast. He would pray the liturgies and Elder Joseph and Elder Arsenios would go to these liturgies and they would call those liturgies of elder Daniel “a mestagoigia”, i.e., it was a grace-filled event and it was just, they would be saturated from the holiness coming from this holy elder who would pray the Divine Liturgy, then he would say a few words after the Divine Liturgy, and then he would go and do his hesychastic business. This elder Daniel, was also as we said, a zealot. And these were his two most influential elders at the beginning of Elder Joseph’s boria, his path in this hesychastic life. So elder Joseph himself was aligned with these fathers who believed that the NCs were graceless.

But then he started getting thoughts.

PART 2: 4:10 – 11:02

And he prayed about things. Apparently, it says there in the life that he prayed, and then they left the stricter faction to join the synod of Met. [St.] Chrysostomos of Florina who was a righteous man of God and he had heard about that. And he wrote a letter to him asking for forgiveness, and Met. Chrysostomos wrote back to him and said “All is fine. And I accept you all.” And then he had another vision, and then he left Met. [St.] Chrysostomos and decided to leave the zealots altogether, and then eventually he started commemorating the Patriarch, and then eventually his synodia went back and forth.

One thing is consistent and the one consistent thing is that there are a lot of inconsistencies with regards of what is going on here. Because of this Gordian knot that I am talking about which is actually confusing – most people that read this book can’t really read behind the lines. They just read this statement and they think: “Well Elder Joseph then it must be the end of the story”. Well, these other holy fathers did not believe that.

There’s another elder mentioned in this book, Elder Ieronymos of Aegina. Elder Ieronymos was exceptional man of prayer. He had compunctionate prayer. He had the prayer of the heart. And the situation of Elder Ieronymos was actually the opposite. Elder Ieronymos continued to serve under the so-called official churches after the change of the calendar, but he was having conscious pangs about it. And he prayed and he prayed, and then God made it clear to him that he join the zealots. So, he went to Met. Chrysostomos of Florina. And then he continued with the synod. The bishop that buried him was Met. Akakios of Diavleia. He is one of our bishops. He is still alive. He is in his 90s [Met. Akakios reposed in late 2019 – Transcriber].

Elder Ieronymos had a greater gift of clairvoyance than Elder Joseph. It is pretty evident from his life and from the people that knew him. And even foreknowledge, because they are two different things. Sometimes God reveals certain things; sometimes God does not reveal certain things. St. Macarios of Egypt says in one of his ascetical homilies, he says that even the disciples of Our Lord themselves weren’t exactly able to work miracles every single time that they wanted to, because that was up to God. God is the one works miracles. So, Saint Ieronymos met with Elder Arsenios, the co-ascetic of elder Joseph before Fr. Arsenios met elder Joseph, in the Holy Land, at the monastery of St. John the Baptist on the Jordan. So elder Arsenios learned a few things about prayer from elder Ieronymos and he had a very, very high opinion about Elder Ieronymos. Finally, the nun who was with elder Ieronymos and stayed with him up to his death is the sister according to the flesh of Father Arsenios.

There was another contemporary of Elder Ieronymos. His name was elder John of Amphiali [Saint John the New Almsgiver of Amphiali]. He was the founder of the monastery of Saint Demetrious in Piraeus and also of the Holy Trinity in Amphiali. This man literally raised the dead. He was a miracle worker, both during his life and after his life. At one time he went to visit Elder Ieronymos, and Elder Ieronymos said “Please leave”. This was a shock to sister Evpraxia, the nun who was with the elder, and she said to Elder Ieronymos, “how could you do such a thing. How could you ask Fr. John to leave. This is the Fr. John. “And elder Ieronymos said, “Nun, leave me. I did not see a human being; all I could see was an effulgence of light. And that man is a Saint of God and I am not worthy to hear his confession, and I am not worthy to be in his presence.” And this St. John of Amphiali, whom we consider a saint, because he is a Saint, was the confessor of Met. St. Chrysostomos of Florina. And it was revealed to Fr. John of Amphiali that Met. Chrysostomos was going to repose, and so he went to see the bishop and he told him about his revelation. And the Metropolitan said I had the same revelation, and so, the one confessed to the other and he took Holy Communion and he had reposed with a righteous ending.

So, these are the people now who are under Met. Chrysostomos. And so, on the one hand he’s [i.e., Elder Ephraim in his book] praising Elder Ieronymos, but on the other hand they are considering Met. Chrysostomos to be I guess a schismatic, they don’t come out and say ‘schismatic’. They don’t use that word. In any case, this is the conclusion that a lot of people can get from reading this book.

There are a series of books written in Greek by Father Cherubim called “Contemporary Ascetics on Mount Athos.” These books were translated and printed by the Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery in Platina, CA. They are really good lives, very edifying, particularly for monastics. One of the lives comes to mind, Father Joachim, who was one of the fathers of St. Anne’s Skete [Elder Joachim of St. Anne’s Skete]. He was a zealot father, meaning he was a non-commemorator. He belonged to the synodia which did not commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople for matters of faith, as many fathers of the time did. And he was in America, and he was scandalized by the fact that many of the modernistic clergy in America cut their hairs, trim their beards, shaved their beards, and wouldn’t wear a rasa, so he prayed to the Mother of God to be deemed worthy to always wear his rasa until his last breath, to have long hair, long beard. So here we see a very unique phenomenon. His beard grew down to the floor, and he used to carry it in a sack. There is a photograph of him in the life, and once again, he also was one of those fathers who did not commemorate the Patriarch of Constantinople.

You know we can write volumes and volumes about all these Old Calendar elders (there were many more of them). There is also Elder Moses of Athikia. He is just an absolutely phenomenal person. This is just …the details of his life are unbelievable. He reposed in the 1940s. Elder Ieronymos reposed I think in 1966. They were all contemporaries.

PART III - 11:02 – 16:32

Then, just a few years before Elder Joseph’s repose, he received an encyclical. Now this was the thing that really prompted this move. To leave the zealots. He received an encyclical from the synod of the GOC under Met. Chrysostomos stating that the official so-called New Calendar church of Greece was graceless. And he thought, “wait a second now, we came here so we don’t have to deal with all that”. And of course, even here, the rumor ran “there was one encyclical, there was another encyclical” It’s not exactly clear. It was a prospathia. It was an endeavor to bring together all the Old Calendarists, the two factions. Met. Chrysostomos didn’t totally believe that, that they were graceless. He made that statement so that he could bring the other faction together.

So, elder Joseph was upset, he was quite irritated over this encyclical. So, he said “Fathers” -- now reading from the life it seems he already made up his mind – but he said “Fathers, we need to pray”. So, he went in and closed himself in his cell and prayed for three days and then he came out and said “Fathers, we’re leaving.” So, they did not all accept it very easily. In fact, the older fathers had a problem with it. Father Arsenios, he had a problem with Patriarch Athenagoras. The younger ones had no problem - –Father Ephraim, Father Joseph, Father Charalambos. But, Father Ephraim himself [of Katounakia] – another Father Ephraim [not of Arizona] who is not exactly part of the synodia but had Elder Joseph as his spiritual father – said something very significant to him that is recorded in his life. He said: “Geronda, Elder, you know that even the chosen, even the elect can fall into delusion in the last days.” Well of course, even in the first centuries of the church, the elect were always faced with the problem of demons appearing as angels of light. So, you see, this is very, very sort of a danger zone, when we are dealing with dreams, particularly dreams, visions, and voices. I am not saying that it does not happen. Because if I say that, then I might as well just cut out a lot of the lives of the saints, the details of the lives of the Saints. Because you find this obviously. But the fathers, even some of those fathers themselves who had these visions, did say that you had to be very cautious. St. John of the Ladder said don’t accept any dreams. It could be – and I am not saying that Elder Joseph was planamenous himself – that he was totally in delusion, but it could be that there was a delusion here or there. That happens.

But now we are continuing with the inconsistencies. Because, on the one hand, we read, in this life, the dreams that he had at that time. And in another life, I think it was Fr. Joseph of Dionysiou, who wrote the life of Elder Ephraim of Katounakia -- Something different. In this life, it says that “Elder Joseph had a dream, that he was in church, that were bickering among themselves. He says yes, we are in the Church but we had no elefthreo pnevma – the spirit of freedom, or a free spirit.” So, of course you can come to the conclusion that perhaps, they are all part of the Church but the zealot fathers are too busy bickering so that you don’t want to be with them because you are not going to have a free spirit. On the other hand, the book written by this Father Joseph [of Dionysiou] says something different. It says that Elder Joseph found himself on a piece of land that was separated from the Holy Mountain of Athos, and then he jumped off and went onto the main land, for safety. And then after he jumped off that little piece of land fell to the sea. So, it is different. There is no reference to this at all in this book written by Fr. Ephraim. But I think I’ve heard three or four different types of visions about this. Another thing, about worms or something. It’s just… So we have a little bit of, or perhaps a lot of, inconsistencies. And then after this, one wonders why he didn’t just have the one vision about the one certain Patriarch. Why leave the Matthewites, go to the Florinites, and then stop commemorating, and then after that commemorate the Patriarch. Because, when they left the zealot fathers, they didn’t start commemorating the Patriarch right away. There was a period when they did not commemorate him either. Then they started commemorating the Patriarch and then after the lifting of the anathemas [in 1965], which happened after the repose of Elder Joseph, the synodia themselves stopped commemorating. And at that time, although they did not align themselves with the zealots again, they were just non-commemorators. Which there are still some of those types on Mount Athos. They aren’t exactly with the zealots, they aren’t exactly with the Old Calendarists, but they don’t commemorate.

Part IV - 16:32 – 22:01

And Fr. Ephraim of Katounakia, then, at this time when Elder Joseph decided to leave the zealots, protested a little bit and Elder Joseph said, “If you’ve got a problem, go back to your elder”. So, you see he belonged to another synodia, but he felt a close connection to elder Joseph. He was almost part of his synodia in a way, because he felt Elder Joseph was his spiritual father. But then he says he felt so closely connected to Elder Joseph, he had a problem of conscience: “They’re not with the zealots, they started commemorating, and I’m here with the zealots, what do I do?” So he prayed about it too. And then he asked a couple of elders, I think one of them was Fr. Gabriel of Dionysiou, I think the other one was Fr. Gerasimos of Mikragiannanites who was a famous hymnographer, and they said “Stay with you elder” So for many years after that Fr Ephraim of Katounakia remained a zealot. He stayed with the zealots.

Now, this is very strange, because in the book written by Fr. Joseph, they are praising him for that because of his obedience. But we know that obedience to disobedience is not obedience. If you believe that’s not the Church, you need to be with the Church. No elder is above the Church. And there is a very clear chain in what I was talking about. On top there is the Lord himself who is the head of the Church, then there is the body, the Church, then we have the synod, after the synod then we have the bishop, then we have the priest, then we have the deacon, the monastics and the lay people and so and so forth. So, we have this chain. But if there is a disconnect somewhere, in between Jesus Christ, the Church, and you, you have to make sure you are connected to the Church. So, he’s saying there, i.e., Fr. Joseph is saying in his book, that he was honoring the Church by staying with the zealots because of the teaching of the Church of obedience. Now, of course, the Church teaches obedience. This is why Adam fell from paradise, because of his disobedience, and our Lord came to us by His obedience. And you know we have a lot of people who aren’t really thinking like Orthodox Christians. They try to reshape Orthodoxy. They are affected by Protestant thought, perhaps. And they try to underestimate the chain that we’re talking about. You have to have a spiritual father, you have to have a bishop, you have to have a synod, you have to have a church, you have to be obedient. If you’re obedient to Father, you are obedient to Christ. Yes, that’s true, and we don’t deny that. But if your Father is not connected to the Church, you have a problem. You have to connect with the Church.

And in another time, we hear that Father Ephraim of Katounakia heard a voice saying: “the Church is in Constantinople.” But on the other hand, he’s continuing to commemorate. So, this is really a Gordian knot like I said. But people don’t really know, and they can’t make these connections, and they can’t read betweeen the lines. So, Fr. Ephraim says that when Elder Joseph made his move, it was apotoma, it was a sudden change. So that’s why some of the fathers, the older fathers particularly, were surprised to a certain degree by his decision. I can sympathize to a certain degree with Elder Joseph’s frustration with the zealot fathers, because some of the zealot fathers did in fact have zeal not according to knowledge. Some of them were a little too fanatical. But, to be fair, that happens everywhere. The New Calendarists themselves have fanatics, both those who are ecumenists, those who are anti-ecumenists. You’re going to find fanaticism everywhere. It just happens to be a problem. But you can’t base your opinions upon one or two or three or four people. It has to be based upon the truth.

So, we mentioned our Saints, our own Elders, which Elder Joseph himself had connection to in some way, to some of them. I know that Fr. Ephraim [of Arizona – Transcriber], I mentioned that there were some inconsistencies going on, I know that at one time as we said, when they lifted the anathemas they stopped commemorating, at one time he went to visit Archbishop Auxentios, at one time Archbishop Auxentios read of prayer of cheirothesia over him, then he went back. They all started commemorating the Patriarch when they became Abbots of monasteries. Then, I think it was 1991 or 92, Fr. Ephraim decided to join the ROCOR, then a few months after that, he left. And of course, people were saying the Panagia told him to go to the ROCOR. He left after that. So, you know, did Panagia make mistake, or what is exactly is going on, I don’t know. But I know that, they were, during this period when they left the zealots but they were also not commemorating the Patriarch, that they were very much sympathetic towards the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad [ROCA].

Part V - 22:01 – 25:55

The ROCA rather is where we got our ordinations from. And the ROCA is the church that supported the traditionalist Orthodox. And there also is another bishop [St.] Nikolai Velimirovich who used to provide Holy Chrism for the Old Calendarists of Greece. St. John Maximovitch, the patron Saint of our little monastery, visited my Cathedral, St. Markella, on numerous occasions. He was up on the throne during services. And there are pictures of him at the cathedral. Metropolitan [St.] Philaret and the ROCOR produced a lot of holy people. These were our bishops, and here in America we of course have a very close connection to them. And in 1969, Met. Philaret wrote, together with his entire synod, a letter to our synod in Greece, officially proclaiming a recognition, recognizing them as a sister church. They were aware of what happened. They were aware of the persecutions against the Old Calendarists after 1924 when the calendar changed. And, you know, often times when God needs to, he makes things clearer to the flock of Christ, for one reason or another.

In 1925, the Old Calendarists decided that they were going to have a vigil service for the Feast of the Holy Cross at the church of St. John the Theologian, and it became a huge event. It wasn’t just ten, twenty, thirty people. It turned out to be 2000 people. The authorities heard about it and they sent the police to stop the vigil. And, the police arrived there around 11:30pm, and once they saw a multitude of people looking up the sky, they looked to the sky and they saw the Sign of the Cross over the church, as a verification to the faithful who were celebrating according to the Orthodox calendar the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross. (Even the police fell down on their knees). Now when you read, you can find two other instances of this taking place in the history of the Church, in the Menaion. It’s commemorated in the Menaion. This is the third time. And this is a big event. We’re not talking about yia yia or papouli, you know grandma or grandfather, babush kadezh, whatever you want to call them having some kind of dream or one or two people seeing something. We’re talking about 2000 people! God doesn’t make mistakes. And those people remained faithful to the traditions of the Church. There was no such miracle among the New Calendarists, verifying their mistake.

But after that, it was one thing after another too, but this was a major event because there was 2000 people. And as I say even the police themselves fell on their knees, beseeching the Lord for mercy. So, there was no way that they were going to arrest the priest and cause a roughness there at that service.

So, we are called ta logoika provata. We are called the rational flock of Christ. So, we are supposed to use our mind. And, this is abundantly clear I think to anybody who is rational, so you can’t be making statements like “the Old Calendarists are all planamenoi” because I think the miracle of the Cross taking place speaks a lot more than one or two people making such blank statements.

PART VI - 25:56 – 31:29

Another instance of one of the many miracles which took place, because, as I said, there were many miracles which took place in order to verify for those who were trying to preserve their Orthodox faith and tradition that they were doing the right thing by following Met. Chrysostomos. There were times when clergy were invisible, or people in general were invisible, and I’ve heard this even from people who are commemorators today. Clergy who commemorate the Patriarchate, because some of them were zealots at one point. It was an undeniable fact for them that there were times when the police would go to arrest people, and the people were just not visible. And one of those times was with Father [St.] John [The New Almsgiver] of Amfiali, he was in church, in the sanctuary, and the police went to arrest him, but he was right there, and if you’ve ever been to the church. I went to the church that he founded, of St. Demetrious, and the sanctuary is very small. And the police went in and they didn’t see him at all. Other times they would be chanting and they wouldn’t hear the chanting. So, God was working definitely with these people. God was with these people.

And then on, there were numerous different miracles which took place. I remember one of the monasteries that I went to in Attiki, in Attika, in honor of the Zoodochos Pigi, the Life-Giving Spring. The elder there, his name was Fr. Dhopetosis [? - not clear] – yeah, they were nuns that lived there – he was hiding in the mountains during the time of the persecution of the Old Calendarists, because the Old Calendarist clergy would be imprisoned, their beards would be shaved, they would take off their rasas. Sometimes we would hear horrific events like turning over the Holy Communion chalice. Other times would be toppling off the Epitaphios on Holy Friday. So the nuns were in church mourning the fact that they had no priest to for the Feast of the Theophany to bless the waters. And while they were in church, saying their prayers in tears, right underneath the icon of the Life-Giving Spring, the marble cracked open and water came out. Of course, they understood that this water was Holy Water. And I didn’t mention also for St. John, remember I mentioned to you about Elder John of Amphiali. After his repose, he was buried at the monastery of Holy Trinity that he founded. And every year, on the monastery feast day, the bishop would go out and have a memorial service at his grave, and once they started this memorial service, water would come out of his grave, and the faithful would collect it, and I know people that witnessed it many times, and miracles would happen from this water that came out of the grave of Fr. John. Then of course the relics came out, and after the relics came out, the miracle stopped. By God’s grace, we have a rib of St. John at our monastery, and also relics of St. Ieronymos and of St. Chrysostomos.

So, it’s not so simple. You can’t just say… If you know anything about history, you can’t really just say that the Old Calendarists are schismatics, especially if you have any connection with Elder Joseph the Hesychast, because his whole upbringing, or call it his whole formation as a Hesychast was with the zealot fathers. It was only in the last few years of his life that he left. And perhaps this is one of the reasons why the New Calendar Patriarch has not glorified officially him, whereas he’s glorified others like Fr. Paisios, who was recently reposed I think in 1994. I said glorify, meaning official proclamation.

But the real issue of course, the most problematic issue is, when you’re dealing with matters of faith, you believe what your bishop believes. So, so if your bishop is preaching some type of a heresy, then he’s…you’re believing in him, you can’t just say “well, the bishop is the bishop and he can do whatever he wants. That’s his business. And I believe what I believe.” Because on top of the Holy Table we have the antimension which is signed by the bishop, which gives the permission to the priest to serve the Divine Liturgy and the Divine Liturgy takes place in his name. The priest is his representative really. And this is the teaching of St. Ignatios the God-bearer and the fathers of the Church. And we can bring to reference many statements made by a lot of these bishops which are extremely problematic because they are not really Orthodox statements. And perhaps we could save that for another time.

So…let’s just hope [? inaudible] that answers your question.