Joseph the Silent, Joseph the Cave; in the world Frangiskos Kottis; (11/2/1897, Lefke village on the island of Paros - 08/15/1959, Athos), - an outstanding devotee of piety of the 20th century, spiritual mentor of many Athonite monks. The names of the disciples of Joseph the Hesychast are associated with the renewal and spiritual revival of 6 of the 20 Athonite monasteries and many monasteries outside the Holy Mountain.
The parents of the future elder, Georgios and Maria, were poor but pious people. Georgios died in 1907, and the upbringing of 6 children fell on Maria's shoulders. According to Frangiskos's mother, soon after the birth of her son, she learned about his upcoming fate: an angel who appeared to her in a dream wrote down the baby's name on a certain list and took him away, saying that the King needed him.
Frangiskos did not finish primary school, because after the death of his father he had to help his mother and brothers. In 1914 he went to work in Piraeus. After completing military service, he settled in Athens, where, according to some sources, he was engaged in small trade, and according to others, he worked as a cook and then as a tram conductor. At the age of 23, the young man became interested in reading spiritual literature, under the influence of which he began to imitate the ascetic life of the ancient fathers on the town of Pendeli. In the same 1921, having met a certain elder from a cell in Kareya, Frangiskos distributed his property to the poor and went to the Holy Mountain to become a monk.
On Athos, Frangiskos first joined the brotherhood of Elder Daniel of Katunaki, but then he left there in search of a more secluded place for asceticism. The young man was unable to immediately find a spiritual father for himself, about which he later wrote bitterly: “Day and night I cried because I did not find the Holy Mountain as the saints write about it.” In particular, his attempt to become a disciple of Elder Callinicus the Hesychast was unsuccessful, since the latter refused to teach his novices mental prayer. Then Joseph the Hesychast began to lead a hermit’s life, living in caves. Afterwards after many harsh deeds, he was granted the gift of grace-filled, unceasing prayer.
Unable to find a suitable shelter, Frangiskos traveled around Mount Athos for some time, making a living by making brooms. During these wanderings, he met and became close to the monk Arseny. On the advice of Daniel of Katunaki, who pointed out to young people the importance of obedience for spiritual life, at the end of 1921 Frangiskos and Arseniy became students of the simple-minded and kind-hearted elder Ephraim of Katunaki, an Albanian by birth, engaged in the craft of cooperage. In 1925, Frangiskos was tonsured into the great schema with the name Joseph.
Shortly before his death, Elder Ephraim moved to the monastery of St. Basil the Great, where he soon died. After his death, Joseph, yielding to the request of his brother, assumed the responsibilities of the head of the community, although Fr. Arseny was older both in years and in terms of the time of his monastic tonsure. Left alone, Joseph and Arseny continued traveling around Athos, returning to their kaliva only for the winter, and then decided to live there permanently, doing wood carving. According to Joseph's memoirs, this period of his life was associated with especially difficult temptations. So, one day the elder saw in a vision a long line of monks preparing to fight demons. The tall and glorious military leader invited him to stand in the first row of fighters, to which Joseph happily agreed. The vision was followed by a fierce spiritual warfare that lasted 8 years, as a result of which Joseph, in his words, “entered all the refuges of the enemy and, after fierce combat, came out of them by the grace of the Lord.”
An important event in the life of the ascetic was the acquisition of a spiritual father, Elder Daniel, a silent and almost complete recluse, who monasticized in the cell of St. Peter of Athos in the vicinity of the Great Lavra. From his confessor, Joseph adopted the rule of eating food (consisting of 1 measure of bread and a small amount of vegetables) only once a day, making no exception for great holidays.
During his stay at the monastery of St. Basil the Great, a small monastic brotherhood began to form around Joseph: the elder was joined by his brother Athanasius, Fr. John from Albania and Fr. Ephraim (later hieromonk who led the Old Calendarist movement in the city of Volos). The famous ascetic Monk was also a novice of Joseph for some time. Gerasim (Menaias), who, despite the fact that his health did not allow him to stay in the brotherhood for long, always remembered the elder with deep respect. Since the ascetics began to live permanently in their kaliva, Joseph gained great fame, and many visitors came to him for advice. This circumstance disrupted the secluded atmosphere, prompting the founders of the brotherhood to look for a new place for monastic deeds.
Joseph in 1929 and 1930 left the Holy Mountain to tonsure his mother as a nun and found a nunnery in the vicinity of the city of Drama. In 1933, he returned to Athos, continuing to direct the 5 nuns he had tonsured through correspondence.
In Jan. 1938 Joseph together with Fr. Arseny looked for an abandoned kaliva in the Small Skete of St. Anna, located in caves under a rocky cliff, where they labored for the next 30 years. The devotees renovated the small church of St. John the Baptist and built for themselves a hut from wood, twigs and clay, divided into 3 cells, one of which was intended for Joseph, the other for Arseny, and the third for the visiting hieromonk. Here Joseph and Fr. Arseny was alone again for some time. The very location of the kaliva and the lack of space for living quarters did not suggest the presence of other brethren. Nevertheless, over time, new disciples from among young monks joined the ascetics, including Mon. Ephraim (later hegumen of the Philotheus monastery, and then the founder of a number of monasteries in the United States), mon. Joseph (later confessor of the Vatopedi monastery and biographer of the elder), Hierom. Charalampius (later hegumen of the monastery Dionysius).
The hardships of life in the Small Skete of St. Anna (associated primarily with the need to lift loads to great heights every day) had a bad effect on the health of young novices, so in June 1951 Joseph decided to move closer to the sea. They chose St. Kaliva. Bessrebrenikov in the New Skete. At the beginning of 1958, the elder’s health deteriorated sharply, and a painful abscess appeared on his neck. Yielding to the requests of his spiritual children, Joseph agreed to accept treatment, although he considered the efforts of doctors unnecessary. The following year he suffered from heart failure. On the day of the Dormition of St. The elder departed to the Lord, having predicted his death and having previously received communion at the festive Liturgy.
Relics of Joseph today time are in Vatopedi, and the honest head and the rest of the relics are in the monastery of St. Anthony the Great (Arizona, USA). Posthumous apparitions of the elder and miracles that took place during the transfer of his relics were reported. Joseph is revered as a locally revered saint on Mount Athos, as well as in Romania.
A large number of letters from Joseph to relatives and spiritual children, devoted to various issues of spiritual life, have been preserved. A selection of these letters was published by Elder Ephraim of the Philotheus Monastery under the title “Expression of Monastic Experience.” The elder also wrote the essay “The Ten-Voice Spirit-Moved Trumpet,” which describes in figurative form the steps that an ascetic must overcome on the path to acquiring grace. The elder’s writings are characterized by a unique style, combining archaism with popular expressions and the use of rhymed prose.
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St. Gerasim of Cephalon, New, Nataras, Athonite, Hierom. († 1579, commemorated August 16, October 20)
See life.
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Icons of the Mother of God “Vsetsaritsa”