Elder Daniel of Katounakia (1846–1929): A timeless “Voice from Mount Athos” against Ecumenism

By Nikos Sakalakis, Mathematician

Source: Θεοδρομία, No. 1 / January-March 2023, pp. 84-91.

 

 

Part I

Undoubtedly, the Teachings—Admonitions of Elder Daniel constitute a spiritual Eden, within which the inner man fully perceives the connection between Asceticism and Confession in their Orthodox dimensions. He represented the profound anti-heretical and Ascetic–Confessional expression of the Athonite monastic commonwealth.

More than ninety-three (93) years have passed since his death.

Let us recall the Scriptural word: “The Spirit of God is in thee, and watchfulness and understanding and abundant wisdom were found in thee” (Dan. 5:14).

It is true that the most ascetical Fathers, these frontier-guards and sentinels of the Orthodox spirit, are those who have articulated—raised to a high (hierarchical) position—the cycle: Asceticism–Confession, Confession–Asceticism.

These Fathers, such as Fr. Daniel of Katounakia, because they were always in continual mystical converse with the Holy Triune God, therefore confessed the Orthodox Faith with firmness, which (today) many toxic ecumenical texts of the pseudo-synod of Crete, as well as texts and statements of Patriarchs, bishops, monks, and theologians, distort.

Among the writings (studies–articles) of Elder Daniel, his work stands out as prophetic–confessional, bearing the title: “A Voice from Mount Athos concerning the forthcoming Ecumenical Council” (Katounakia, Holy Mountain, May 6/19, 1925).

Concerning the theological–conceptual structure of this study, the Brotherhood of the Danielaioi wrote (1977):

“Among His polemical works, first place is held by the work now being published in print for the second time, ‘A Voice from Mount Athos concerning the forthcoming Ecumenical Council.’ We say that it surpasses and excels the other works, because each one of those refutes only a single heresy, whereas this one repels all of them together and indicates the unerring path, by which whoever walks shall arrive at the Kingdom of Heaven.”

For the simplification of the linguistic difficulty of the text [in Greek], we clarify:

“Among his militant studies, first in rank is his work ‘A Voice from Mount Athos concerning the forthcoming Ecumenical Council,’ which is being reprinted for a second time. We say that it supplementarily completes the previous ones and surpasses them, because each one of the earlier studies examines and corrects only a single heresy, whereas the present study repels all heresies collectively, thus showing the unerring path, which, when followed, leads the faithful to the Kingdom of Heaven…”

***

At the time of Elder Daniel, the Ecumenical Patriarchate had announced an outline of a (forthcoming) Ecumenical Council with subjects including: “the revision of the entire body of Ecclesiastical legislation and its adaptation to the present condition of the Church, which would also bring forward the union of the individual Churches on arising ecclesiastical matters, as well as the ways of their manifestation, and the determination of the Paschalion on the basis of already accomplished relevant scientific studies.”

Likewise, a program for the revision of many sacred rites had also been announced by the Patriarchate, such as: “Concerning Transubstantiation; concerning Liturgical and Ecclesiastical books; concerning the Typikon of ceremonies and sacred services; concerning the time of worship, the Sunday rest and other feasts; concerning fasting (its kinds and duration); concerning sacred vessels and vestments; concerning Iconography and Music; concerning the marriage of clergy; concerning the attire of the Sacred Clergy within and outside the Church; concerning Monks and Holy Monasteries; and every other ecclesiastical or theological matter, and finally concerning the determination of the Paschalion and the Calendar.”

Elder Daniel was among the first, chronologically at the beginning of the twentieth century, to perceive the depth of the change in attitude of the ruling Church (the Patriarchate of Constantinople) toward the heresies. He understood, at an early stage, the directions of Ecumenist thought, after a life lived as a true Orthodox ascetic. Finally, he clearly discerned the vision of Ecumenism for its synodal institutionalization.

Elder Daniel responded through his work “Concerning the Forthcoming Ecumenical Council” to those matters which the Patriarchate of Constantinople had gathered together and decisively defined as the agenda of the future council.

His confessional–theological thought is structured (as a response) in the following sections, which constitute his treatise:

A) WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CONVOCATION OF THE COUNCIL

In the course of developing unity, he writes:

“This Holy Council will not judge and censure the heterodox, but, as it is said, it will place upon the bench the First Ecumenical Council itself, as well as the others, and through revision and judgment will alter many things for the attainment of the broad and spacious way…” (p. 17).

1st Comment: Indeed, the decisions of Crete are being realized daily in successive stages, in accordance with the prophetic observations of Fr. Daniel concerning the ecclesiological content and foundation of the “New Council.”

B) THE ECONOMY OF THE COUNCIL AND THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS ACCEPTANCE

Among other things, Fr. Daniel emphasizes:

“Since the change of the Calendar brought about a great scandal and created schism among the Christ-named fullness, what then will happen when it is heard that the said Holy Council will advance such opinions, which only the carnal-minded men and those holding the views of Luther privately think and embrace?” (p. 19).

2nd Comment: Indeed, the ecclesiology of the pseudo-council of Crete constitutes a reorganization and adaptation of the content of the consciousness of the “carnal-minded men and those holding the views of Luther,” as Fr. Daniel aptly foretold.

C) THE TEACHING CONCERNING TRANSUBSTANTIATION

Here Fr. Daniel clarifies that “the precious Gifts are sanctified after the prayer of the invocation of the Holy Spirit through the blessing of the priest, as is also testified by the ancient Typika of Rome and of Gaul themselves…”

He also emphasizes: “The Papal Church, among other (many) innovations, introduced also the arbitrary sanctification of the precious Gifts as occurring with the proclamation of the Lord’s words, which is contrary to the Apostolic and Ecclesiastical Tradition” (pp. 21–22).

D) THE REVISION OF THE LITURGICAL TYPIKON

With absolute definiteness, the Elder emphasizes:

“The liturgical aspect of our Church, as well as the Typikon, which its pious fullness has followed from the most ancient times, was not established by random or ordinary men, but by Holy men recognized for extensive learning and supreme holiness, and it was confirmed through sacred Revelations by the Holy Seven Ecumenical Councils and Local Councils, possessing authority from the Holy Spirit, Who is incapable of error” (pp. 22–23).

3rd Comment: In the study of Elder Daniel (the holy father), the spirit of Orthodoxy in relation to the Revisionism of Ecumenism is correctly interpreted.

***

God willing, our reference to the remaining sections will follow in the next article. Today, amid the inactivity of many and the lack of resistance on the part of the Holy Mountain, the teaching of the holy Elder Daniel constitutes a lesson in Orthodoxy.

 

Part II

It was the 8th of September 1929 when Heaven received the holy soul of Elder Daniel of Katounakia

In a letter of condolences from the Sacred Skete of Kavsokalyvia, we read:

“…He ought to have lived still longer… The blessed one was the cauterizing fire of every innovator and a great pillar of the Athonite Commonwealth, having watered through his writings every Orthodox soul and every wavering heart.”

In our previous article (Part I), we focused our attention, as a fundamental reference, on certain sections of his prophetic work “A Voice from the Holy Mountain concerning the forthcoming Ecumenical Council.”

Glorifying God, we marvel at Elder Daniel for the prophetic and panoramic discernment with which he perceived the intentions of the future (for him) “council” in Crete, which “council,” as forthcoming, had simply been announced through thematic indications in a “Patriarchal Proclamation,” without a specified place of convocation.

We continue with a (summary) presentation of the remaining sections of his treatise “Concerning the Forthcoming Ecumenical Council.”

E) FASTING

“All matters concerning the time of worship, the observance of Sunday rest and of other days, and those concerning fasting and its duration, which are being proposed for revision and reform, aim—as circumstances loudly proclaim—on the one hand, that we should follow the broad and anti-Gospel path, contrary to the command of the Holy Gospel, for the sake of the negligent and worldly-minded men, and on the other hand, that we should brighten the expectations and hopes of those inclined toward heresy, so that they may boast that we are drawing near to them” (p. 23).

Thereafter, he refers to the roots of Fasting, which flourished in the life of the Church.

The Holy Father emphasizes:

a) “That Fasting was legislated by God and constitutes the principal means through which prayer is accomplished and the temperate and virginal life is practiced has been demonstrated by the very facts themselves, through the manifestation of so many Holy Men, both from the Old and from the New Testament” (p. 24).

b) “The proposed revision will bring not correction, but the overthrow of Apostolic and Synodal ordinances” (p. 25).

c) “If fasts, prayers, vigils, and the appointed services of the Church and the other sacred rites were merely simple forms and insignificant regulations, and not constituent elements of the narrow and afflicted path, why did the entire choir of the Holy Fathers of the Church embrace precisely these things and preserve them unto the end?” (p. 27).

F) THE MONASTIC ORDER

Today, within the faithful there exists disappointment and skepticism concerning the overall passive stagnation of the Monks in the face of the Pan-heresy of Ecumenism. Let us not forget that, in the spiritual ferment introduced by heretics throughout history, the Monks arose as peaks of resistance against heresies, with sacrifices and persecutions. For this reason, Elder Daniel presents Monasticism as a comparative examination of their life and of its form.

He emphasizes the following:

a) “The saving activity of the Monastic order, being founded (= supported) upon the basis of the Sacred Canons and institutions of the Church, brought forth countless holy and God-illumined (= deified) men, who through their supernatural struggles and God-pleasing ascetic labors raised a trophy not only against the passions and sin, but also against so many heresies, and became manifold benefactors both to the Church, through their immortal writings, and to the entire Christ-named fullness, which does not admit of even the slightest revision” (p. 29).

G) THE ATTIRE OF THE CLERGY

A manifestation of the destructive mania of ecumenist revisionism was also seen in the proposals of the Patriarchal reformers concerning a change in the attire of the Holy Clergy — that is, that priests should abandon the established traditional form.

Elder Daniel wrote:

“Concerning the attire of the Clergy both within and outside the Church, which is likewise being put forward for revision, this aims at nothing else than that our venerable and Sacred Clergy, in imitation of the Europeans, should cast off the reverent cassock and put on tight garments. Why? Because thus the European scholars desire it” (p. 32).

1st Comment: In a Memorandum of his (1970), Fr. Philotheos Zervakos, in Chapter III, entitled: “The removal of the mournful and honored cassock, hair, and beard renders the clergy effeminate and unworthy of the Priesthood,” wrote, among other things:

“The former Metropolitan of Kition Meletios Metaxakis (Archbishop of Athens) convened a Priestly conference… almost all the priests of Athens came forward willingly… What did he advise them? Hear and shudder and weep. In Europe all the clergy are shaved, cropped, and without cassocks, and we also must imitate them, lest we appear outdated and uncivilized. Then almost all the Priests, with one voice, with courage and boldness, said to him: ‘We, Your Beatitude, are Greek Orthodox; we shall never become heretics, Protestants, or Papists’” (p. 36).

Η) THE CORRECTION OF THE CALENDAR

The holy Father perceived in good time that the calendar–festal reform and Ecumenism became connected and identified with one another.

He wrote, concerning this:

a) “Perhaps the Anglicans, who desire their union with us, accepted all the other matters and sought information also concerning the Calendar, as to which is the more correct?” (p. 35).

b) “The God-bearing Fathers, all inspired by the Holy Spirit, knowingly set aside the question of correcting the Equinox as harmless, in order to preserve the essence, and so as not to come into conflict with the Ordinances of the Holy Apostles. And thus, they established for us the Paschalion, which our Orthodox Church continues to preserve… Therefore, this proposal concerning Revision signifies nothing other than the overturning of the decision of the First Holy Council.” (p. 35).

I) EPILOGUE:

“But nevertheless, with great humility and reverence, we submit those judgments which are set forth by the divine Fathers of the Church themselves, and what will occur in the event of the convocation of such a Holy Council…” (p. 37).

2nd Comment: Those of us today who stand “opposed” to the ecumenist bishops do not do so out of “personal opinion or egotistical inclination,” as Elder Daniel also emphasizes. We stand opposed to the heresy and not to the persons themselves. We seek to highlight the Orthodox confessional principles which confer upon those who are truly Orthodox their distinctive unity.

3rd Comment: The study of Elder Daniel’s treatise abolishes (for those of good disposition) the wavering between Orthodoxy and Ecumenism, establishing them firmly upon the solid foundation of Orthodoxy.

 

Online Greek sources:

Part 1 -- https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2023/07/31/20230731aGeron-Danihl-Katounakiotis-A.pdf

Part 2 -- https://www.imoph.org/pdfs/2023/08/21/20230821bGeron-Danihl-Katounakiotis-B.pdf