A Modern Apostle to the Greek Church

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. VIII (1991), No. 2, p. 7.

 

Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fill has done more to promote the Old Calendar movement in the Orthodox Church of Greece than perhaps any leader since the Blessed Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Florina. Like Metropolitan Chrysostomos, he was a clergyman in the State Church of Greece, founder of one of the most renowned of its monastic communities, and a spiritual son of the famed Elder Philotheos, Abbot of the Longovarda Monastery and a spiritual son of St. Nectarios of Aegina.

Just as his heroic predecessor suffered slander and condemnation for his act of conscience in returning to Church tradition, so Metropolitan Cyprian has been the victim of jealous attacks both from modernists and from the Old Calendarist extremists, who resent his able leadership of a movement which had lost grasp of the original aims and resistance of Metropolitan Chrysostomos and the first Old Calendarist zealots.

And just as Metropolitan Chrysostomos earned the respect of many of the more sober members of the State Church and the Greek government, so Metropolitan Cyprian's moderate stand—one of resisting the errors of the Mother Church of Greece but not condemning Her as a body without Grace—is drawing the attention of many leaders in Greece. He has built around him a Synod of pious, educated Bishops, dedicated clergy, and exemplary monastics. His missionary work is extensive. Uniting our Synod to the two million Romanian Old Calendarists, who now have official recognition as a valid Orthodox body by the Romanian authorities, he has almost single-handedly changed the image of the Old Calendarists in Greece.

Evidence of Metropolitan Cyprian's apostolic work is the stream of government officials who avail themselves of the hospitality of the monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina—in which he resides—, including, notably, the Greek Prime Minister and his wife. Recently, the Greek Minister of Trade, Mr. Athanasios Xarchas, was awarded a medallion by the monastery in Fill. In his acceptance speech, addressed to His Eminence, he aptly summarized the outstanding accomplishments of Metropolitan Cyprian in bringing the Old Calendar movement to a new eminence:

"I must say that I, whose life is virtually wholly microphones and speeches, find it difficult at this moment to express what I feel.

"I am obliged to thank you and the Fathers of the monastery. ...You have helped me immensely, both the first time that I came here and now today, when I once again find myself with you. Now, from these experiences of mine, I am in a position to assess how great your spiritual work is and how many people—how many individuals—you have helped in a similar way. I find it difficult to say more to you.

"I thank you yet once again and I pray God to give you strength and health—to you personally and to all with you—that you might continue this truly vital, spiritual work of yours."

The Church of Greece is compromised by spiritual decline, the politics of ecumenism, and Bishops unresponsive to forces working toward the destruction of the Faith in Greece. The serious Hierarchs are silenced. Lay theologians are given little, if any, role in the conduct of Church affairs. And the Archbishop has said that he prefers Jehovah's Witnesses to Old Calendarist traditionalists.

The extremist Old Calendarists, on the other hand, have often made their resistance movement one of hateful attack and un-Christian privilege, condemning the New Calendarists outright.

Sincere Greeks, from the simple peasants to government leaders, are looking for alternatives and for mature guidance. Metropolitan Cyprian has offered an answer to that quest and has brought many to appreciate anew the call of the Old Calendarist resistance: an apostolic work.