Letter of Bishop Petros of Astoria and Archbishop Leonty of Chile to the P.T.E.O.K., dated May 22, 1964

(From the Archives of Bishop Chrysostomos Naslimes of Magnesia. Translated from the published original Greek.)

 

 

Astoria

To the Honorable President and Administrative Members of the P.T.E.O.K.

Beloved children in the Lord, truly the Lord is risen!

I have carefully gone through your letter, and I was grieved over the situation there. His Eminence of Chile is also very deeply saddened. But what must be done, my beloved?

Shall we abandon the struggle because of two or three passionate persons? And shall the struggles and sacrifices for the acquisition of a canonical leadership go in vain?

The whole situation is marked by a lack of spiritual awareness. Christ is absent from the hearts of His representatives.

Please work, and do not grow weary, acting for the peace and progress of our storm-tossed Church. Others are trying to unite with Catholics and Protestants, while we are concerned with division and not with the unity of the faith.

My humble opinion, which is also approved by our protector, His Eminence of Chile, is that you, CLERGY AND PEOPLE, should take care to find men of God who possess knowledge of oneself, in order that they may be consecrated Hierarchs. Our struggle is no one’s personal inheritance. Those who need instruction and purification from the passions of pride, authoritarianism, hatred of the brethren, slander, and Christ-mongering do not have the RIGHT to represent a struggle that has been watered with blood. The trade of the shoemaker or of the cobbler is not blameworthy. But the art of arts, the science of episcopal oversight, befits those who possess knowledge of themselves, and not chance opportunists.

Alas, to what the struggle has come… into what hands it has fallen. The bones of [Chrysostomos] of Florina, of [Germanos] Varykopoulos, of [Martyrios] Zoulias, [1] and of all the departed office-bearers will be rattling with indignation at the degradation of the Sacred Struggle.

I conclude the present letter, which my beloved His Eminence Leonty of Chile co-signs, and I pray that the Lord may disperse the dark clouds which the boorishness of certain foolish persons has heaped up in the firmament of our Church, and that purification and progress may soon come.

With heartfelt prayers,

Peter of Astoria

Archbishop Leonty

 

1. The late Archimandrite Martyrios Zoulias was the brother of the later President of the P.Th.E.O.K., the ever-memorable Antonios Zoulias. He was born in 1913 and became a monk at a very young age. He was ordained Priest in 1936 by Germanos Varykopoulos of the Cyclades, and was a close collaborator of Saint Chrysostomos, former Metropolitan of Florina. He was beloved by the people because of his rare gifts and virtues: poor to the end, exceedingly merciful, and always in the front line in ecclesiastical and national struggles. During the Occupation, by order of Saint Chrysostomos, former Metropolitan of Florina, he carried out great philanthropic work through the Youth Union which he had organized. He reposed very young, at only 36 years of age, on October 11, 1948, in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to the ecclesiastical calendar.

 

Source: Η Αλληλογραφία του Αρχιεπισκόπου Λεοντίου Φιλίπποβιτς με τους Έλληνες Παλαιοημερολογίτες (1961–1969), by Nikolaos Mannis, Athens, 2022, pp. 167-168.