by Professor John Kallianiotis, University of Scranton
“Greeks regard
foreign sights with greater wonder than sights at home.”
(Pausanias
[2nd-century Greek geographer])
Prologue. Traditional
Orthodoxy was established in the year 33 A.D. at Pentecost and subsequently
reaffirmed by the Apostolic Synod of 49 A.D. The process of consolidation
continued with the Edict of Milan, issued by St. Constantine the Great in 313
A.D., and the Orthodox Faith was reinforced by the First (Ecumenical Synod of
325 A.D., in Nicaea, Bithynia. This Synod of the 318 God-bearing Fathers also
regulated the Orthodox Christian Festal Calendar in accordance with the Julian
Calendar, which had been in effect since 46 B.C. [1] At the ensuing (Ecumenical
and local Synods the Orthodox Church was further upheld and safeguarded by way
of correct dogmas. Having given a Christian orientation to classical Greek
culture through Holy Tradition and the theology of the Church Fathers,
Orthodoxy spread to the peoples of Northern and Eastern Europe, making them our
brethren in the Lord. With the passage of time, through the subjugation of
Western Europe by the Franks—through the agency of the eternal enemy of mankind
and adversary of the Lord, the soul-destroying Devil—the West came to espouse
various innovations and human philosophies (heresies), the result being the
Schism of 1054. One ensuing innovation was the change of the calendar (the
Church’s Festal Calendar) by order of Pope Gregory XIII, in 1582. [2] We
Orthodox, however, did not accept this novelty, since the Festal Calendar was
fixed by the God-bearing Fathers (through the Holy Spirit) and became
thereafter a sacred ecclesiastical Tradition of our Orthodox Faith. The
Orthodox Church condemned this change in the calendar, and a great many
miracles confirmed the incorrectness of this decision by the Roman Catholic
(Western) Church to celebrate the Saints on different days than those of their
actual celebrations.
Unfortunately for Orthodoxy, at
the beginning of the 1920s certain Hierarchs who were ignorant of the magnitude
of their responsibilities, of the truth of Orthodoxy, and of Holy Tradition,
along with its dogmas and Canons, succeeded in insinuating themselves into the
Patriarchate of Constantinople [3] and the Church of Greece. [4] This apostasy
of theirs led them into error and innovation, for they accepted and imposed on
our Orthodox people the anti-Orthodox Papal (Gregorian) Festal Calendar. They
imposed it by force and through persecution, with the aid of the anti-Christian
government, [5] on those who desired to remain loyal to traditional Orthodoxy.
There have been, however, a multitude of visions and miracles that have
demonstrated the erroneous nature of the New Calendar.
Appearances and Miracles Prove
the Correctness of the Old Calendar. In 1924, when Patriarch Meletios IV
(Metaxakes) and Archbishop Chrysostomos I (Papadopoulos) of Athens and All
Greece decided to change the Festal Calendar (which is based on the Julian
Calendar) handed down by the Fathers and to adopt the Papal Calendar (the
Gregorian Calendar), the latter sent out an Encyclical [6] to be read in all of
the Churches in the country, so that the faithful might be informed of the
change.
In the village of Myloi,
Karystos, in Evboia, the then parish Priest, Father Ioannes (papa [Father]-Giannes
[John]) read this Encyclical on Sunday, March 10,1924, which date was altered
to March 23. Two days later the faithful were supposed to celebrate the
Annunciation of the Theotokos. The simple, yet faithful villagers who
were present that Sunday in the Church of St. John the Forerunner in Myloi
crossed themselves and whispered to one another: “See, the time has come when
Papoulakos said that they would make Latins of us.” [7]
At the end of the reading of the
Encyclical, papa-Giannes, acting on the orders of his Bishop, sternly adjured
the faithful not to be absent from Church on the following Tuesday, when they
would celebrate the Annunciation of the Theotokos according to the New
Calendar. The faithful left after the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, deeply
distressed over this imposition of the Papal Calendar upon Greece.
On Monday afternoon, the eve of
the putative Annunciation according to the New Calendar, the wife of the mayor
of the village, Olga Rongas, sent her eight-year-old son to let out their goat,
so that it could graze. On the way, the boy passed in front of the Church of
St. Paraskeve, [8] seeing there an unknown Priest with a white beard, who
called the boy to him. [9] The devout boy drew near and kissed the hand of the
Priest, who asked him: “Whose son are you, young man?” And the young boy
replied: “I’m the son of Nikos Rongas, Pappoule [an endearing term for a
Priest, derived from the Greek for ‘grandfather’].” “Tell your father not to go
to Church tomorrow, since it is not the Annunciation. If, however, he does go,
your brother, the soldier, will be in grave danger.” “Alright, Pappoule. I
will go and tell him.”
The young boy went to his house
and told his mother what the unknown Priest had said to him. Mother and son
together returned to St. Paraskeve’s so that the mother could meet the Priest,
but the Priest was no longer to be found there. In the evening, the mother
recounted all of these things to her husband. They were frightened by this
warning of the unknown Priest and so did not go to Church the following day,
the day of the “Annunciation.”
Papa-Giannes was incensed that
the mayor had not accepted the New Calendar. That evening, in the village
coffeehouse, in front of everyone, papa-Giannes said: “The mayor did not obey
the decision of the Church, but believed in his son’s fairy tales.” This
Orthodox stand of the family of Nikos Rongas was followed by other villagers,
who threw away the fish that they had cooked for the “Feast of the
Annunciation” and kept the Fast.
A few days later, the Rongas
family received a letter from their son, Georgios, who was a soldier, in which
he wrote as follows: “My venerable parents, you should know that yesterday,
when we were celebrating our national holiday according to the New Calendar, a
stray bullet grazed my hand without breaking any of the bones. Everyone here
assured me that it was a miracle that I was saved, and that I had a Saint
looking out for me! I am fine now.”
On hearing all of this,
papa-Giannes tried to excuse himself by saying that these people were right,
but that he could not violate the orders of his superiors, since otherwise he
would lose his livelihood. This Priest continued to celebrate services
according to the New Calendar and to intimidate those Christians who followed
the Old Calendar. Within the year, however, at the end of the Feast Day of the
Church according to the New Calendar, while crossing the small bridge over the
river in his village, papa-Giannes slipped and fell into the river, where,
unfortunately, he drowned. [10]
Another event occurred on the
Feast of the Prophet Elias according to the Old Calendar (July 20,1925). [11]
Evangelos Makres, from the village of Aetos, Karystos (Evboia), did not go to
the Church (of the Holy Martyrs Timothy and Maura) to which his wife, who
followed the Old Calendar, went by herself, but took his son and his mules and
they went to bring wood from the hillside in Kastanies, Oche. His wife had told
him that they should not go for wood that day, since it was the Feast of the
Prophet Elias, but he did not listen to her.
They chopped the wood and made
ready at midday to load up the mules, so that they could return to their
village. At that moment, they saw before them an Elder with a white beard and a
most radiant and sweet countenance, who said to them: “What are you doing
there, my lads?” “We’ve been chopping wood, Elder, and we’re preparing to load
up so that we can leave,” answered the elder Makres. “But do people work on a
day like this?” asked the Elder. “And what day is it today, Elder?” “Today, my
lads, is the Feast of the Prophet Elias,” the Elder replied, and he immediately
vanished from their sight, just as he had appeared.
They then realized, both father
and son, that this Elder was the Prophet Elias and, trembling with fear, they
put aside the wood, knelt, crossed themselves, and returned to their village.
There, they related to everyone what they had seen and heard that day at Oche.
Thenceforth, die elder Makres and his son followed the Old Calendar, as did the
majority of their fellow villagers.
The next event is noteworthy,
because it involves an appearance of the Lord Himself. On Sunday, June 27, 1935,
our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to a virtuous fifteen-year-old goatherd, Evangelos
Anastasiou Tzitzoudes, in the village of Amorion, Didymoteichon, on the River
Hebros. [12] During this appearance, the Lord expressed distress over our
behavior: people’s denial of Him, our doing away with the Wednesday and Friday
fasts and the lenten periods, our failure to keep Sundays and Feast Days as
days of rest, and our non-attendance at Church.
He spoke also about the language
of the Divine services and that of the Holy Gospel, saying that it should be katharevousa
[puristic Greek] and should not be translated into the very impoverished
Modem Greek language. The Lord especially stressed the issue of the calendar
and said that the faithful should return to the Old Calendar, which He, the
Lord, had Himself appointed, since it was by this calendar alone that the
Feasts of the Saints, the Apostles, and the Prophets were to be celebrated. “On
the days on which you should be celebrating, you work,” He complained. As He
said these things about the calendar, the Lord was deeply distressed and wept.
He stated repeatedly that it was necessary for us to repent and to take His way
and forsake the way of the Devil.
Yet another noteworthy event
occurred to the holy Elder Father Ioannes (1899-1966), Abbot of the Holy
Monastery of St. Demetrios in Amphiale, Piraeus. [13] During a period of bitter
persecutions against true Orthodoxy there was a shortage of Churches for the
traditionalist Orthodox, owing to the occupation of the existing Churches by
the innovating New Calendarists. For this reason, Father Ioannes [the more
formal Greek for “Giannes,” or “John”] restored and refurbished the ruins of an
ancient monastery, that of the aforementioned St. Demetrios in Amphiale,
Piraeus, and later founded a new monastery, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in
Nea Pentele, north of Athens.
On one occasion, while he was at
prayer in the Church, Father Ioannes had a unique vision: Christ showed him an
immense plain, where black and white sheep were grazing. Father Ioannes asked
the Lord in astonishment: “Why are half of the sheep white and half of them
black, and not goats?” He then heard a most harmonious voice saying: “The white
ones are all those who uphold the holy dogmas and the holy traditions, and the
black ones are those who have violated both dogmas and traditions.” In
addition, in another vision of Christ, the Lord told Father Ioannes to receive
New Calendarists for Confession. In fact, when New Calendarists approached him
for this purpose, they realized their error and returned to the Old Calendar.
These revelations of Father Ioannes confirmed that the Old Calendarists (the
white sheep) are those who are absolutely correct in their Orthodox Faith.
Epilogue. At various
times, on days when Feasts were celebrated according to the Old Calendar, very
many miracles and appearances of Saints, the Honorable Cross, Holy Light, a
Holy Cloud, and of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself have been noted and recorded,
and these all confirm the necessity of returning to the Julian Calendar
ordained by the First (Ecumenical Synod, which determines the Feasts of our
Holy Orthodox Faith and preserves our Holy Tradition. Nonetheless, numerous
innovators, schismatics, ecumenists, and individuals with other purposes, but
primarily people who are ignorant of the truth and of the commandments and
Canons of the Orthodox Church, follow the New, Gregorian (Papal) Calendar. In
essence, these poor folk celebrate on their own, there being no Feasts on those
days on which they celebrate, and they sin in working on the days of the actual
Feasts and in not honoring them.
The aforementioned miracles in
Myloi and in Aetos, the miracle in Amorion involving the appearance of our Lord
God Himself, and also the two visions of Elder Ioannes in Amphiale confirm the
error of our apostate “spiritual” leaders and of the division that they have
created within Orthodoxy, which division the Lord permits by reason of our
sins. We need great repentance, unceasing prayer, and humility, and we need to
return to the House of the Father (the Old Calendar), so that the Most
Compassionate Lord might have mercy on us and forgive our innumerable sins,
which have turned Greece, Orthodox countries in general, and the entire planet
into a Golgotha. [14] Our individual and collective sin has led us to the loss
of Divine Grace, and there is a danger of our being abandoned by the Lord, Who
abides with us only on account of the constant entreaties of His and our
Mother, the Most Holy Theotokos. I pray and hope for our repentance and
for the return of those in error to traditional Orthodoxy, to the end that the
abiding Grace of our Lord might be with all of us to the end of our days.
[Translated
from the original Greek text by Archimandrite Patapios.]
NOTES
1. The
Julian Calendar is ascribed to Julius Caesar and was devised by the Greek
astronomer Sosigenes (46 B.C.).
2. The New
Calendar was proposed by Aloysius Lilius and decreed by Pope Gregory ΧΠΙ on
February 24,1582. In a letter, the Pope called on Patriarch Jeremias II
(Tranos) to introduce the New Calendar into Orthodoxy, but he refused. A great
many supernatural events took place in Italy during this period, demonstrating
the erroneous decision of the Pope to impose the New Calendar.
3. The
Patriarchs during this period were: Meletios IV (Metaxakes) (1922- 1923),
Gregory VII (1923), and Constantine VI (1924-1925). See Archimandrite Basileios
Stephanides, Εκκλησιαστική Ιστορία [Church history], 5th ed. (Athens:
Ekdotikos Oikos “Aster,” 1990), p. 799.
4.
Chrysostomos I (Papadopoulos) (1923-1938).
5. The
anti-Christian Liberal Party of Eleutherios Venizelos and the pro-Venizelos
officials under the leadership of Plasteras and Gonatas contributed to the
imposition of the New Calendar. The governments in this dramatic period were
those of Stylianos Gonatas (November 27,1922-January 11, 1924), Eleutherios
Venizelos (January 11,1924-February 6,1924), Georgios Kaphantares (February
6,1924-March 12,1924), and Alexandras Papanastasiou (March 12, 1924-July 25, 1924).
6. This
Encyclical, numbered 430, of March 1,1924, was published in Εκκλησία [the
official publication of the Church of Greece—trans.] on March 8,1924.
7. See Βοανεργές,
Vol. XII, No. 69 (September-October 2013), pp. 33-35. Papoulakos passed
through the villages of Kavontoro, Evboia, and there are many accounts by
grandfathers and grandmothers to this day concerning his admonitions and
prophecies. He “embarked” by sea at the village of Evangelismos on an overcoat
that he had, and sailed thereon to Andros. A villager who wanted to follow him
as his disciple was afraid of getting onto this “boat” (the overcoat) and
remained in Evangelismos (according to accounts by the sainted Maria N.
Kallianiotou).
[“Papoulakos”
was the monk Christophoros (Christos Panagiotopoulos, in the world). In the
mid-1800s, Father Christophoros was active in the formation of modem Greece and
the reestablishment of the Orthodox cultural heritage of the country after
centuries of enslavement under the Turkish Yoke. He became a monk late in life,
but his exploits, when combined with those attributed to him in what are in
some cases feats exaggerated by myths taken from his nonetheless extraordinary
and miraculous deeds, are numberless, rich in moral lessons, and greatly
inspiring—trans.]
8. This
small Church of St. Paraskeve is located on the property of its owners, the
family of the sainted Antonios Kallianiotis.
9. One of my
brothers went to Athens some years ago, and one Sunday morning he attended
services at the New Calendar Church near the house in which he was staying. At
the end of the Six Psalms, a Hieromonk of majestic appearance, wearing an epanokalymmavcho
[the veil covering a monastic kalymmavchion] and with a long black
beard, emerged from the Altar, approached him, and said to him: “I am leaving
and going to another Church, since I am not at peace here.” The man was so
baffled that he said not a word to that unexpected Hieromonk.
10. Similar
evil incidents befell the civil persecutors of die Old Calendarists and the
persecutors from the gendarmerie of Kavontoro, as I was told by a certain
elder, Panagiotes Boubalos.
11. See Βοανεργές,
Vol. XII, No. 69 (September-October 2013), pp. 35-37.
12. See
“Θεία Έμφάνισις σ’ ένα Τσοπανόπαιδο τοΰ Άμορίου” [A Divine appearance to
a shepherd boy from Amorion], Holy Hesychasterion of the Transfiguration of the
Savior, Avlonarion, Evboia (undated).
13. See
Hieromonk Akakios,'Άγιος Ιωάννης Αμφυάλης Πειραιώς: Ό Γέρων τής Αγάπης καϊ
Πατήρ των Πτωχών [St. John of Amphiale, Piraeus: The Elder of love and
father of the poor] (Avlonarion, Evboia: Hieron Hesychasterion Metamorphoseos
tou Soteros, 2012). See also John N. Kallianiotis, ‘“Άγιοι Γέροντες τής
Παραδοσιακής ’Ορθοδοξίας: 'Άγιος ’Ιωάννης τής ’Αμφιάλης” [Holy Elders of
Traditional Orthodoxy: St. John of Amphiale], http://antioikoumenistes.blogspot.com/2013/12/blogposthtml;
idem, ‘Ό Γέροντας Πατήρ ’Ιωάννης ’Αμφιάλης Πειραιώς” [The Elder Father
John of Amphiale, Piraeus], Άγιος Αγαθάγγελος Έσφιγμενίτης, Vol. XLIII,
No. 255 (January-February 2013), pp. 24-28; idem, “Ό 'Άγιος Γέρων
’Ιωάννης τής ’Αμφιάλης” [The Holy Elder Ioannes of Amphiale],
http://christianvivliografia.wordpress.com/2012/ ΙΟ/31/όάγ-γέρων-ίωάννης-τής-άμφιάλης.
14. The
catastrophe of Asia Minor and the current crisis in all sectors in Greece are
the result of our abandonment by the Lord, on account of our apostasy of nearly
a century. Consequently, the repentance of three or more generations will be
needed.
Source: Orthodox
Tradition, Vol. XXXI (2014), No. 3, pp. 19-25.
