July 12: Saint Paisios the Saint celebratestranslated

The Church today honors the memory of the Martyrs Proclus and Hilarius, Andrew the Soldier and Saint Veronica the Hemorrhoid, as well as the memory of Saint Paisios the Saint (whose canonization took place on January 13, 2015). Saint Paisios was born to pious parents, Prodromos and Evlambia Enzepidis, in Farasa, Cappadocia, on July 25, 1924, a few days before the Farasiots fled their homeland for Greece. At his baptism, Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia, the priest of Farasas, full of days and saintly life, named him Arsenios, "to leave him a monk at his feet", as he characteristically said.

In Greece, the family of little Arsenios settled in Konitsa, Epirus, where he spent his childhood and youth. Nurturing himself with stories about the wonderful life of Saint Arsenios, he said that he would become a monk from the age of 5! And after he learned to read, his favorite pastime was reading the lives of the Saints, whose ascetic struggles he imitated with fervent zeal.

After his encyclical studies, he did not want to continue in letters, but preferred to...