Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlasios: My Communication with Saint Paisiustranslated

Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlasios

I extend my most heartfelt thanks to Most Reverend Metropolitan Alexios of Drivast, Pogon, and Konitsa for his invitation to visit Konitsa after many years, particularly on this significant day of the feast of Saint Paisius the Athonite, who glorified the Church through his life, words, miracles, and prayers. I must first emphasize that I owe much to Saint Paisius, for his words sustained me through a period of great trials. I publicly confess, without elaboration, that my position as Metropolitan is due to him, for he gave me wise counsel.

Therefore, since 2004—ten years after his repose, twenty-two years after his passing—I submitted a request for his canonization to the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Holiness Bartholomew, and have repeatedly written to confirm what all know: that he was a saint, a vessel of the Holy Spirit, and a bearer of God’s Grace.

With this in mind, I would like to share, in brief, my impressions from my meetings with him.

1. The...