The new renovator of the Holy Great Monastery of Vatopedi

Elder Joseph of Vatopedi (1921-2009)

My first acquaintance with this late Elder, in the year 1964, is associated with my acquaintance with Mount Athos itself and by extension with the monastic ideal.

When the providence of Our Lady theotokos brought me to her garden for the first time, the most vivid memories remained indelible from my visit to the New Skete. Despite all the then desolation of Mount Athos, I can say that this skete flourished with many, and virtuous, monks. Climbing from the arsanas upwards, you would meet the pious escorts of the Cyrillians, the Chaldeans, the Abrahamians and many other pious skete monks.

As you ascend towards the Holy Monastery of St. Paul, you come across a towering tower. Under the shadow of this tower are some hesychast cells. In one of them, at the “Annunciation”, just five years earlier, one of the greatest figures of hesychastism of recent centuries breathed his last. He is none other than Joseph the Hesychast.

He departed to the heavens, but left behind him beautiful shoots. These shoots, his disciples, were primarily destined to renew the monasticism of Mount Athos, according to the prediction of the late Elder.

It didn't take me long to get to know and connect with them. Each one practiced asceticism in his own hut. However, the order of continuous vigil was common to all, culminating in the Divine Liturgy, precisely at midnight, after six hours of solitary prayer.

As for my humility, it wasn't long before I clung to the subservience of my late Elder Papa Charalambos.

Just below our hut, that of the Holy Forerunner, there is another small hermitage. There, a middle-aged man, a monk of Cypriot origin, and one of the chosen offspring of the late Joseph, and indeed a synonym for the great Elder, was ascetic. Since then, our connection has been on a daily basis. I would dare to say that this late Elder, Joseph (later of Vatopedi), complemented the work of my Elder. And the entire entourage of the hesychast Joseph constituted a mosaic of precious gems. From Papa Charalambos you could hear love, simplicity, humility, straightforwardness; but above all, Grace and blessing, which he transmitted like a magnet.

Joseph; wise, teacher, orator, full of love but also discernment. Forgiving when necessary, but also sharp-edged when he needed to compose and correct, to control, not only situations but also persons.

The simple Papa Charalambos imagines nothing else than to please God with eternal vigil, unceasing prayer and asceticism, and with devout daily Divine Liturgies. Joseph, with a broader mind, grasps in his mind and cultivates the prophecy of his Elder, “these monks will renovate the Holy Mountain.”

From the first moment I met him, he conceived the idea of ​​manning the then unmanned majority of Holy Monasteries. He tried in vain to convince his brothers to leave their huts and all together to man a Monastery.

Later, when our small brotherhoods multiplied, it was as if a natural situation for us to gradually move to larger cells and later become an “apple of discord”, with invitations from one Monastery after another for reinforcement with spiritual material. Thus, without us realizing it, the entourage of Papa Ephraim found itself in the Holy Monastery of Philotheos, which soon staffed three other Monasteries.

Our entourage (of Papa Charalambos) found themselves in 1979 at the famous Holy Monastery of Dionysios.

The one who celebrated this event was Elder Joseph, who saw his vision and the prediction of his Elder being fulfilled. However, due to the lack of personnel, this great visionary was left out of the dance. He was last in line; however, it turned out that Our Lady Theotokos had reserved for him not just a mullet, but a whole sea bass, and this sea bass is none other than the historical and greatest Lavra of Vatopedi.

However, Divine Providence did not stop here; and the renovator of the Holy Monastery of Philotheos, after spreading his influence to three other Athonite monasteries and many others outside Mount Athos, already surrendered to Divine Providence, found himself in America to organize Orthodox Monasticism, erecting seventeen other monasteries from the ground up.

Elder Joseph standing 3rd from the left in the back row. Seated in the front row are his colleagues, Father Ephraim Katounakiotis and Father Charalambos (later Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Dionysius, Mount Athos)

But his spiritual brother, Joseph of Vatopedi, first took care to organize a Monastery that was almost completely disorganized. To this end, the abbotship fell to one of his first chosen children, the venerable Father Ephraim. He entrusted this Hieromonk with the great burden of organizing, staffing and renovating almost from the ground up a huge, vast, semi-deserted complex. With the blessing and undivided support of the late Elder, the Monastery is currently thriving with a group of over 100 monks and over half of the building complexes have already been renovated. Since this monastery was manned with the accompaniment of Elder Joseph and under the leadership of Pope Ephraim, it has become a great spiritual center, a real oasis where thousands of our suffering brothers from the world find rest, regardless of whether in recent times it has become a contradictory sign by many who do not know the reality. But the word of the Lord is faithful: “Woe when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26).

But in imitation of his spiritual brother Fr. Ephraim Philotheitos, Elder Joseph, with the breadth that distinguished him and the concern for the entire Church of Christ, did not delay in spreading his rays outside Mount Athos, and indeed to his martyred homeland of Cyprus. There, by divine will, he sent one of the top cadres of his entourage, the Hieromonk (at that time) Athanasios, where he not only renovated the peculiar and disorganized historical Monastery of Machairas, but also erected from the foundations and renovated about 8-10 Holy Monasteries, which he staffed with spiritual material of both sexes. And he himself, by Divine Providence, was promoted to Metropolitan. But three of his children are members of the Hierarchy. Together with the other Synodal Bishops, they constitute a guarantee and a source of comfort for the future of the Cypriot Church and Cypriot Hellenism in general.

The late Elder Joseph the Hesychast has passed away, but he left behind a rich legacy: his children; his example; his life; and most of all, his teachings.

His descendants are passing away every day. Elder Arsenios, Father Athanasios, Papa Charalambos, Papa Ephraim of Katounakiotis, Father Theophylactos, etc. are passing away. Joseph of Vatopedi is also passing away. The orphanhood is great; but also the inheritance is greater.

Legacy, his shoots that lead so many souls; legacy, his living; his zeal; his struggles; legacy, his teachings; his books; but also his living word with a multitude of live speeches on cassettes.

The dead gain. You have delayed your heavenly journey long enough, holy father, for the sake of us, your unworthy children. It is time for you to rejoice with the saints, your predestined father, and all together to pray for the Church of Christ and the whole world, but also for us, your orphaned children, that we may remain on the ramparts and in the line which you have marked for us and sealed with your holy life.

Eternal is your memory, our blessed father, and pray for us, your orphaned children.

Humble

Monk Joseph Dionysiates

Source: Photos are from the book

Joseph M. D. PAPACHARALAMPOS DIONYSIATIS

The simple abbot and teacher of mental prayer / 2nd edition, 2003

"Melissa" Publications