Elder Porphyrios

I recently began reading a beautiful book about an Orthodox saint of modern times - Wounded by Love: the Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios (1). By the grace of God, the Orthodox church has seen an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in several saintly men and women of the latter half of the last century. In their knowledge of the Scriptures and their miracles, many of them rival the saints of the apostolic age and the desert fathers of early monasticism. Among them are Elder Cleopa of Romania, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, and Elder Sophronios of Essex. Elder Porphyrios, another of this number, was a monk on Mount Athos, but because of illness he spent most of his life as a priest at the Polyclinic hospital in Athens, Greece. When he was still quite young, around 16 or 17, he received a gift from God, the gift of clear sight. This gift enabled him not only to see distant objects as though they were right in front of him, but also to see into the souls of those people whom he encountered as a priest for confession. The passage in which he describes the initial effects of this gift is quite beautiful, and so I quote it below. The footnotes at the bottom are my own.

The gift of clear sight, as I have told you, was something I had never desired. Nor, when I received it, did I attempt to increase it or cultivate it. I gave no importance to it. Neither have I ever asked, nor do I ask God, to reveal something to me, because I believe that it is counter to His will. But after the experience with Old Demas (2) I changed completely. My life became all joy and exaltation. I lived among the stars, in infinity, in heaven. I wasn't like that previously.

From the moment I experienced the grace of God all the gifts were multiplied. I became sharp-witted (3). I learned the Trinitarian canons, the Canon of Jesus and other canons (4). Simply on their being read and sung in the church I learned them by heart. I recited the Psalter by heart. I took care with some Psalms that have similar words so that I didn't mix them up. I genuinely changed. I 'saw' lots of things, but I didn't speak, that is, I wasn't given the right to say anything. I wasn't 'informed' to speak. I saw everything. I registered everything. I knew everything. From my joy I no longer walked on the earth. My sense of smell was opened and I smelled everything, my eyes were opened and my ears were opened. I recognized things from far away. I distinguished the animals and the birds. From the sound of the call I knew if it was a blackbird or a sparrow, a finch or a nightingale, a robin or a thrush. I recognized all the birds by their song. At night and at dawn I delighted in the chorus of nightingales and blackbirds, all of them . . .

I became another, a new, a different person. I turned everything I saw into prayer. I referred it to myself. Why does the bird sing and glorify its Maker? I wanted to do the same. The same with the flowers: I recognized the flowers by their fragrances and I smelled them when I was half an hour away. I observed the grasses, the trees, the water, the rocks. I spoke with the rocks. The rocks have seen so much! I asked them and they told me all the secrets of Kavsokalyvia (5). And I was filled with emotion and contrition. I saw everything with the grace of God. I saw, but I didn't speak. I often went into the forest. I was greatly enthused by walking amidst the stones and the rushes, the thickets and the tall trees.

(1) Limni, Evia, Greece: 2005, Denise Harvey (Publisher): pp. 30-1.

(2) Old Demas was a saintly Russian monk on Mount Athos with whom Elder Poryphyrios had a life-changing encounter.

(3) The Elder had received formal schooling only at a rudimentary level.

(4) The Canons are liturgical poems, often of a dogmatic character, sung primarily during the service of Matins.

(5) The skete on Mount Athos where the Elder lived with two older monks.