Paisios of the Holy Mountain

Life

Saint Paisios was born on July 25, 1924, at Pharasa in Cappadocia to devout parents, Prodromos and Eulampia. Shortly before the family left for Greece in the exchange of populations, he was baptized by Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia, who gave him his own name, Arsenios. The family settled in Konitsa in Epirus, where he grew up and learned the trade of a carpenter. During his military service he was for the most part a radio operator.

In 1953, at twenty-nine, he went to the Holy Mountain. He later lived for a time in solitude near Saint Katherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai, and returned to Athos in 1964, continuing his ascetic struggle despite illness. In 1979 he settled at the Panagouda cell near Karyes, where so many people came to him that markers were set up to show the way to his cell.

Diagnosed with cancer, he underwent surgery in February 1994. On July 11, 1994, he received Holy Communion for the last time, and he reposed soon after. He was buried at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian at Souroti near Thessaloniki, next to Saint Arsenios. On January 13, 2015, the Ecumenical Patriarchate added him to the calendar of saints.

Sources: OCA Lives of the Saints. Retold in our own words.