Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis | May 11, 2014 | Thessaloniki
And we now come to the
presentation, in broad outline, of the elements which show him, beyond the
other aspects of his many-sided personality and his manifold activity, as a
struggler and confessor of Orthodoxy.
On the basis of these elements,
especially the strict but just criticism that he exercises toward the
influences from the West in the area of ethos, of moral life, but also in the
area of dogma, toward deviations from the Orthodox Faith, the Venerable Elder
Philotheos surpasses all the other venerable Elders of the past century and is
revealed as a figure equal to the Holy Fathers and Teachers. He composes
courageous memoranda to political and ecclesiastical rulers, but also to the
people, and as a prophet of repentance he foresees that, if this moral
corrosion and apostasy from the Faith continues, God will withdraw His Grace
and blessing pedagogically from the Greek nation, just as He did in the past as
well.
In many of his written texts,
this conscience is entirely evident, the kind one encounters in the prophets of
the Old Testament. For this reason, Fr. Theoklitos Dionysiatis is not wrong in
his aforementioned book, which begins the “Prolegomena” with the passage of the
Evangelist John referring to the Prophet and Forerunner John, as applied
analogically also to the Venerable Elder Philotheos Zervakos: “There was a man
sent from God, whose name was John; this man came for a witness, to bear
witness concerning the Light, that all might believe through him.”
Venerable Philotheos proved to be
a prophet and teacher sent by God in the twentieth century, during which
prophetic voices were rare, while, on the contrary, loud voices of false
prophets, false shepherds, and false teachers were heard, preaching innovations
and delusions. He himself wavered as to whether he should follow the
hesychastic monastic life, far from the noises and problems of the world, as he
desired, or whether he should combine the monastic life with missionary
activity in the world, as his spiritual father and teacher, Saint Nektarios,
recommended to him; Saint Nektarios had done the same, following the example of
great Holy Fathers, especially the Three Hierarchs.
This wavering of his ceased when,
by a prophetic sign from God, he was sent to preach to the world. He himself
relates that, during his pilgrimage to the Holy Places, he found himself on the
God-trodden Mount Sinai. There, during his descent from Mount Horeb, he entered
the cave of the Prophet Elias, and, praying, he fervently besought God with
tears to reveal to him whether it was His will that he remain there in the
cave, far from the vain world, without distractions and cares, so that he might
keep his mind continually united with God and think only of heavenly things.
And while he was speaking these thoughts, he heard an invisible voice say three
times: “Feed My sheep.” He then understood that this was the will of God, and
returned to Longovarda.
Concerning the fact that in the
twentieth century bold and manly confessors of the Faith were rare, while the
adversaries of the Church were multiplying even within the body of bishops and
shepherds, there exists a moving text of his prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was also circulated as a separate pamphlet in 1973. After first pointing
out that the Holy Apostles and their successors, the Holy God-bearing Fathers
and teachers of the Church, conquered throughout the centuries the visible and
invisible enemies, preserved the Holy Church, and led many to the true Faith,
the Orthodox one, he adds: “In previous generations there were holy men, wise
men, righteous, honorable, prudent, Spirit-bearing, God-bearing, manly in soul,
who struggled on behalf of the Church, on behalf of the Apostolic and Patristic
Traditions, and with Thine alliance and help, O Lord, conquered the ranks of
the enemies and preserved the Church.
“Today such men exist only few in
number, rare, hard to find, and not manly, wise, and holy as were our ancient
Fathers. But those who war against the Holy Church are many, and the vessel of
the Church is in danger of being sunk, because it does not have good shepherds
and guardians. Some of the shepherds and bishops, whom they appointed to
shepherd and guard Thy rational flock, the Holy Church, have become wolves in
sheep’s clothing, complete despisers and transgressors of the Sacred Canons and
Apostolic Traditions, seeking their removal and replacement. Others have opened
the doors and invite and receive the wolves, the Papists, the Protestants, and
all the heretics, so that they may enter unhindered and sacrifice, destroy, and
tear apart the rational sheep... And instead of struggling and taking care to
unite the Church, they struggle to divide it still further and make it
pan-heretical...”
In the face of this image of the
increase of the enemies and adversaries of the Church, of the indifference of
the shepherds, or even of their transformation into enemies—which, it should be
noted, is much worse today—Venerable Philotheos feels all the more his duty and
responsibility as a spiritual father and clergyman to struggle and react. He
reads God’s recommendations to the prophets to announce to the people their
sins with a voice as loud as a trumpet, otherwise they too will be punished,
and he writes: “Having read these things, I, the sinful and unworthy one, and
having feared lest, as a spiritual father and priest of the Most High, if I
remain silent while seeing the sword that is coming, the Lord should require an
account from me, I announce the sins of the Greek people and of the clergy,
calling all, and first of all myself, since I too happen to be more sinful than
all, to repentance and return.”
Writing critically to Patriarch
Athenagoras concerning his openings toward the Pope, he expresses the same fear
in the event that he should keep silent: “I am compelled to write to you,
fearing that I shall sin if I am muzzled and do not confess the truth.”
He expresses the same
consciousness of responsibility also when, in 1957, he publishes a special
pamphlet against blasphemy against divine things, which had then taken on great
extent: “Being conscious, on the one hand, of the sacred duty as a spiritual father
and priest, that I must not keep silent, but must preach the truth, reprove,
rebuke, admonish, and exhort those who sin... I judged it appropriate to
publish the present booklet.”
There were, of course, also
critics of this prophetic and confessional stance of Venerable Philotheos, who
recommended to him that he practice obedience to his own bishop and to the
decisions of synods. Writing in reply in 1930 to his bishop, who was recommending
obedience to him, he said: “If all Christians followed this opinion to the
letter, namely, to follow the bishops in everything, then alas, neither
Orthodoxy, nor the Church, nor an Orthodox Christian would exist today. If
Orthodox Christians followed the patriarchs and bishops Apollinarios,
Macedonios, Eutyches, Dioskoros, Sabellio-Severos, Eusebios, and many others,
and accepted and embraced their opinions, where then would Orthodoxy be? Where
a pious and Orthodox Christian?!! And why do I speak of men, patriarchs and
metropolitans? And do I not speak of synods, composed not of five or ten and
twenty such men, but of 100, 200, and 348 metropolitans and bishops? For 348 in
number assembled in the year 754 in Constantinople and issued the decree against
the holy icons.”
Completing his argument, he
writes that “there are also exceptions, according to which one may disobey
without condemnation, as we also said above and as the Holy Fathers and
Apostles command us,” and he then gives relevant passages from Holy Scripture and
the Holy Fathers.
In a reproving letter that he
sent in 1976 “To the venerable Hierarchy” of the Church of Greece, he writes:
“Let them not say: Who are you, who wish to teach us hierarchs, you who are
inferior teaching us who are your superiors? That I am inferior and unlearned,
I know; that I am nothing from nothing. But I too am a man, an Orthodox
Christian and a spiritual father, and I am obliged, when my Faith is reviled,
not to close my mouth and keep silent. John the Forerunner dwelt in the
wilderness, but when he was informed that King Herod had acted lawlessly, he
left the wilderness and went to the city and reproved the king who had acted
lawlessly. And every man, whoever he may be, is obliged not to close his mouth
when he hears his Faith being reviled, but to protest, to counsel, and, if
necessary, to reprove.”
He reproves even the Athonite
Fathers with persuasive argumentation, because they agreed to organize on Mount
Athos, in 1963, the ceremonies for the millennium of Mount Athos, since he
considers them to be worldly events foreign to monastic customs and to the
history of Monasticism, and that ultimately, they would cause harm rather than
benefit.
And refuting a possible objection
concerning his involvement in another jurisdiction, he writes: “But perhaps
some may say to me: We know how to guard ourselves from the snares of the
Devil; you, Father Philotheos, why are you concerned? You are a stranger; look
to your monastery. I am concerned as a Christian, as a brother of the same schema,
but also because Longovarda was founded by Athonites, the so-called Kollyvades,
friends, of one blood and of one mind with those Holy Fathers, Nikodemos of
Naxos the Athonite, Athanasios the teacher from Paros, Makarios Notaras, etc. …
Therefore, just as I am concerned for my monastery, I am also concerned for
Mount Athos… and I have a sacred and incumbent duty, as a monk, and indeed as a
Spiritual Father, to be concerned not only for my monastery and the monasteries
of Mount Athos, but also for all the monasteries and for all the monks of my
homeland and of my Church.”
He addressed his prophetic and
patristic rebukes at various times, without fear, to kings, prime ministers,
ministers, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and other officials, whenever he
was informed that they had offended the dogmas and the teaching of the Church.
Summarizing his related activity, he writes: “But we, even if many are those
who turn a deaf ear and are willfully blind, are obliged to preach and confess
the truth. From the moment I became a priest and spiritual father, from the
year 1912 until today, I have sent many memoranda to kings, prime ministers,
the Holy Synod, metropolitans, and elsewhere. I also sent four awakening
trumpet-calls, but they did not listen.
“I have spoken and declared; I bear
no guilt. But insofar as men, and I together with them, do not listen to God,
how will they listen to me, the sinner? Yet I have not ceased to speak, but I
struggle against the despisers of the Apostolic and Patristic traditions, the
enemies of Orthodoxy and friends of the schismatic-heretical Papists and
Protestants, who deceitfully strive to lead Orthodox Christians astray, so that
they may follow them into their delusion... But now I shall cease writing, for
I am departing from this temporary life for the eternal and heavenly homeland.”
So great was his prophetic and
apostolic zeal, and consequently his boldness and manliness, that during a
visit of his to Constantinople in 1934, he had planned to meet Kemal Atatürk,
president of the Turkish Republic, and to urge him to embrace Christianity. The
patriarch of that time, Photios, however, dissuaded him from this undertaking,
because there was a worsening of relations between Kemal and the Ecumenical
Patriarchate. When he returned to Longovarda, he wrote a relevant letter, which
has been preserved. Having been informed that Kemal was ill, he decided to
visit him in Ankara; but when he arrived in Athens, he learned that he had
died, and thus the undertaking was definitively cancelled. It nevertheless
shows that his missionary zeal reached the point of envisioning the drawing of
entire nations to Christianity.
Indeed, since we are speaking of
a prophetic conscience, it is not superfluous to mention that among the enemies
and adversaries of Christianity he saw Communism, and he often referred to the
persecutions suffered by Christians wherever communist regimes had prevailed,
and also foretold that they would soon be uprooted, as indeed happened:
“The Bolsheviks of Russia and the
Reds of Spain, because they are deprived of the weapons of love, faith, and
hope, have made their homelands wretched and unfortunate. They profaned and
defiled the holy churches and the holy altars; they savagely slaughtered, and
in various ways tortured and put to death, myriads of innocent clergymen and
laymen. They shed rivers of innocent blood, and they will leave to the
generations after these a stigma and an eternal anathema of their depravity,
evil, and wickedness. But ‘every plant which My heavenly Father hath not
planted shall be rooted up.’ Bolshevism and Communism are a planting of Satan,
because they are deprived of love, faith, and hope; therefore they will swiftly
be uprooted. The Reds of Spain have begun to be stripped of their branches and
uprooted; the same fate will soon be suffered also by their brethren, the
godless Bolsheviks of Russia.”
Until the end of his long life,
he was anxious about his personal spiritual course, and for this reason he
thanked God, Who had preserved him from the snares and delusions of the Devil;
but he was also grieved over the lamentable condition of the Church and of her
shepherds. We cite a small relevant excerpt from his words:
“My end has come, and I thank
God, because He has preserved me from many dangers, bodily and spiritual, from
many delusions and snares of the deceitful dragon; and I beseech Him to
preserve me until the last moment of my death and to bring me into the heavenly
tabernacles, where is the dwelling of those who rejoice. But in the last
moments of my life, my soul is deeply sorrowful and full of pain, seeing the
lamentable condition of the Church and of the shepherds.
“...of Her shepherds, who, apart
from a few exceptions, instead of becoming light through their good works,
became darkness and a cause for the name of our Heavenly Father to be
blasphemed among the nations. I believe and hope that the Founder of the Church
and Prince of peace will shatter these men like potters’ vessels, but His
Church, which He sanctified by His all-immaculate Blood, He will preserve from
the danger of sinking. As for me, I depart in peace; but you, as wise and
prudent men, save yourselves from this present evil and corrupt generation.”
Greek
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