Greek Metropolitan spoke about his personal communication with Saint Paisios
A hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church spoke about how the teachings of Saint Paisios influenced his life and his election as metropolitan.
On July 12, 2026, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou spoke about his many years of personal communication with Venerable Paisios of the Holy Mountain and about the influence of his guidance on his life and episcopal ministry. The conversation took place in Konitsa on the feast day commemorating the saint, as reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists in Greece.
«I owe a great deal to Saint Paisios. His words supported me during times of great temptation», – the Greek metropolitan confessed. According to him, it was precisely the venerable elder's counsel that largely determined his subsequent path: «I must publicly acknowledge, without going into details, that I owe my election to the rank of metropolitan to him».
The hierarch recounted that he first met Venerable Paisios on Athos in the early 1970s, and then visited him regularly for nearly two decades. «Once we walked together for four hours from the monastery of Simonopetra to Panagouda, and I listened to his God-inspired teachings», – the metropolitan recalled. On another occasion, the saint had him stay overnight in his kellia and woke him at three o'clock in the morning so that they could each pray with their prayer ropes in their own cells.
According to His Eminence Hierotheos, Saint Paisios instructed him above all to care for his inner spiritual life. «I did not ask about political and social events, nor about heretics, nor about the Antichrist. I asked only about what I must do in order to meet God», – he said. The venerable elder taught that «prayer is not merely the utterance of prayerful words» and that the most important thing is «for the heart to begin to act».
The metropolitan characterized Saint Paisios as a man enlightened by God, who combined spiritual depth, simplicity, and a sense of humor. «He did not present himself as either a teacher or a monk, although he was a true teacher and a genuine monk», – the hierarch noted. He also recalled that as early as 2004 he had submitted a petition to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew requesting the canonization of Venerable Paisios.
Previously, the Union of Orthodox Journalists wrote about the new martyr of the twentieth century, Metropolitan Anatoliy of Odessa.
