The Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos, 1884-1980

28.12.78

Holy Abbot, Fr. Aemilianos.

Give the blessing.

The Lord blessed Your flocks, and Your children are multiplying continually.

And I am getting old, going forth and hastening to the Jerusalem on high. For this reason, I ask You please to grant me comfort and consolation in my old age, Your Hieromonk Fr. Dionysios, to succede me as Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Longovardas and and in the Convent of Thapsana in Paros.

Pray for me.

Archimandrite Philotheos Zervakos.

"On April 25th, the blessed Elder Philotheos was visited by a hieromonk on the Holy Mountain of Athos who had come to pay homage to him. The venerable Elder asked this monk to confess him, so that he might depart to the realm of eternity duly prepared. This request was a manifestation of his great humility. For though pure and holy, he regarded himself as a sinner.

"Soon after the death of the Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos, ... the highest encomia, emphasizing his sainthood, came from two monks of the Holy Mountain of Athos: Archimandrite Gabriel, Abbot of the Monastery of Dionysiou (1886 - 1983), who for half a century was the foremost spokesman of the monastic Orthodox republic of Mount Athos, and the alread- mentioned Archimandrite Dionysios, who has written the longest obituary, occasioned by his close association with the holy Elder.

"Blessed Philotheos reposed in the Lord at 6:00 in the morning of May 8... His body was taken to the great Byzantine Church of Ekatontapyliani in Paroikia, the capital of Paros, to be saluted by his countless spiritual children and people in general. After this, his body was taken back to the Convent at Thapsana. There it was buried in the tomb which the holy Elder had constructed long before his repose adjacent to the Chapel of his Spiritual Father St. Nectarios which he erected in 1969-1970.

"The burial was performed by Archimandrite Dionysios of the Athonite Monastery of Simonopetra the same monk who had confessed him on April 25th. Father Dionysios - now Abbot of Holy Cross Monastery in Jerusalem - was asked to do this by Blessed Philotheos at the time when he was confessed. The reason for his choosing Archimandrite Dionysios was the fact that Dionysios was a very dear and very devout spiritual son of his."

Exerpted from The Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos, from the series Modem Orthodox Saints, by Professor Constantine Cavamos (Belmont, MA, Institute for Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies, 1993).

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