Announcement by Metropolitan Nikolaos of
Mesogaia and Lavreotiki
Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries Source here Translation: A.N.
Metr. Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) was born on April 13, 1954 in Thessalonica, Greece. He began his post secondary education at the University of Thessalonica where he studied physics. After graduating, he served his obligation with the Greek military services. He then moved to the United States and continued his postgraduate studies in astrophysics at the University of Harvard from which he received a Master of Arts degree, followed by further studies in engineering and biomedical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Additionally, he undertook studies in theology at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, earning Master's degrees in Theological Studies and Theology.
In addition to his studies, he worked as a researcher and research assistant in the Cardiovascular laboratory at the England Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and taught at Harvard University. During this time he was a scientific colleague at NASA and the Arthur D. Little Company. He returned to Greece about 1987.
Entering a monastic life, he resided at Mount Athos for two years before he was tonsured a monk on March 18, 1989 at the Stomion Monastery at Konitsis in northern Greece at which time he received the name Nicholas. Later, Monk Nicholas joined the Monastery of Simonopetra. Mnk. Nicholas was ordained a deacon on March 19, 1989 and a priest later that year on September 10. From May 1990, Father Nicholas served as parish priest at the Holy Ascension metochion of Simonopetra Monastery in Byrona (Vyronas), a suburb of Athens.
Fr. Nicholas was elected to the episcopate by the Synod of Bishops of the Church of Greece on April 26, 2004. He was consecrated Metropolitan of Mesogaias and Lavreotikis on April 30, 2004 by Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, assisted in the consecration by fifteen other hierarchs, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.
Since his ordination as a priest, Metr. Nicholas has continued his involvement in the medical and related arts. From 1991, he taught university courses involving medical, bioethical, and theological content at the medical schools of the Universities of Athens and Crete and the Theological School of Balamand in Lebanon. In 1993, he founded the Greece Center for Biomedical Ethics. In 2003, he received his Doctor of Theology degree in Christian Ethics and Sociology (Ethics) at the Aristotle University of Thessalonica. He also served as the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics. Since 1998, he has been the President of the Synodical Bioethics Committee of the Church of Greece. [Orthodoxwiki]
Beloved brethren,
During the relatively recent threat of the swine flu pandemic, there
also arose – albeit unnecessarily – the issue of contagious
illnesses spreading through Holy Communion.
It is unfortunate that yet another such attempt is being made to
“deconstruct” our Faith (often with impious dialectic, timorous
style, and no genuine, well-meaning argumentation), at a time when
we have been left with no other support to hold on to.
So, with this opportunity, I thought it would be good to mention
certain truths that are deemed necessary for salvaging the valuable
treasure of faith within us.
For over 2000 years, our Church has been transmitting the grace of
Her Sacraments in the all-familiar, human and blessed manner, for
“the healing of soul and body”.
The Church has never been troubled by the contemporary logic of
disrespectful doubting; instead, the faithful have continued to live
with the experience of a confirmed, major miracle. Could it ever be
possible for one’s communion with God to become a cause for sickness
or even the slightest harm?
Is it ever possible for the Body and the Blood of our Lord and God
to contaminate our body and our blood?
Is it ever possible for a 2-millennia-old, daily experience to be
crushed by the rationalizing and the cold shallowness of our times?
The faithful - both the healthy and the sick - for entire centuries
have been receiving Holy Communion from the same Communion Spoon,
which we never wash and we never disinfect; and yet, nothing
detrimental has ever been observed.
Priests who serve in hospital chapels – even in hospitals for
contagious diseases – will serve Holy Communion to the sick
patients, and afterwards piously consume the remainder inside the
Holy Chalice, and are known to enjoy a healthy longevity.
Holy
Communion is everything that the Church and the faithful hold
sacred; the most powerful medicine for the soul and the body.
This is also a teaching – a teaching and experience of our
Church.
Hoy Communion in the Orthodox Church of Rwanda
Those who disbelieve in the miracle of the Lord’s Resurrection,
those who mock His birth by a Virgin Mother, those who deny the
fragrance that proceeds from saints’ holy relics, those who shun
whatever is holy and sacred, those who plot against our Church,
those who seek to eradicate even the smallest trace of faith from
our souls, it is only natural that they would try to take advantage
of any opportunity to insult the most sacred Mystery of the Holy
Eucharist.
The fact that the Anglicans and the Papists have decided “for
precautionary reasons” to discontinue the transmission of their
“holy communion” in England and New Zealand respectively, if true,
does not indicate (as some assert) prudence and freedom, but instead
indicates in the best possible manner the vast distance between them
and our Orthodox Church, who is Eucharistic in Her theology and Her
way of life; Who lives, believes and preaches the Mystery, as
opposed to the other Christian groups which
are
indirectly confessing the absence of Grace and signs from God in
their self-designated mysteries, as well as the lack of an
ecclesiastic identity.
Life without any Sacrament is tantamount to a sickness without any
medication.
Unfortunately, the big problem is NOT the flu virus, as proclaimed
by the Media, nor is it the virus of worldwide panic, as
disseminated by medical societies; it is the virus of disrespect and
the germ of little faith. And
the best “vaccine” for fighting it, is our frequent partaking of the
Sacrament of Holy Communion, “with a clean conscience” and
“blamelessly”. Our
response to this unholy provocation of our days is our Orthodox way
of living.
It would be good if our spiritual fathers were to exhort the
faithful – with discretion, and wherever they discern that there are
no spiritual impediments – to receive Holy Communion more frequently
during these difficult times.
Those of us who have received their blessing should
definitely approach the Chalice of Life more frequently, but
naturally “with the fear of God, plenty of faith, and sincere love”.
The Priest who served Holy Communion in the Spinalonga Island Leper
Colony, using the same Spoon for himself after serving all the
lepers
Source:
here (in Greek)
Photos from here
For ten whole years, Monk Chrysanthos Koutsouloyannakis
was the consolation of the lepers on Spinalonga. He blessed and
served Holy Communion to the sick by reaching out and receiving Holy
Communion himself from the same Spoon, without any fear of the
disease and its consequences.
Those who had met him spoke of an exuberant, benevolent
form whose aim was to alleviate the suffering of people who were
ailing. They characterized him as a “godsend” and a “holy man”.
More
information on Monk Chrysanthos has been taken from the newspaper
'Orthodox Truth' and the testimony of Dimitris Papadakis, a former
High School Headmaster and Chairman of the Heraklion Literary
Society of Crete, who had met him personally.
“Dumped like manure in a filthy manure pit”
“In 1947 the pastor of Spinalonga, Fr. Meletios Vourgouris, had
obtained permission from the Bishop of Petra, Fr. Dionysios
Maragoudakis, for a 2-month leave, from July 20th to September 20th,
to go to the Holy Land. Upon expiry of his leave, he did not return
to his post. The Bishop couldn't find a priest to replace him”,
Papadakis said.
Mr. Papadakis did not fail to mention his touching acquaintance with
Father Chrysanthos, underlining: “I had the good fortune to become
acquainted with Monk Chrysanthos on August 15th of 1967
at the Toplou Monastery. He was a short-bodied, ascetic form, with a
white beard. The years weighed heavily on his shoulders. His cassock
and his monk’s cap were both faded”.
“I was outside the Katholikon (=the Main church) with
Father Chrysanthos one morning, when a very elderly man appeared. As
soon as he spotted Father Chrysanthos, he exclaimed with great
surprise and joy: 'Father Chrysanthos!’ At that same moment, two
embraces opened wide. Inside Father Chrysanthos' humble cell, I was
given the opportunity to acquaint myself with the stranger, but also
to nudge him into talking about his experiences during his contacts
with the priest on the island: 'I was a leper' - he said – ‘I lived
on Spinalonga for many years. Our illness had deformed us. The fear
of infection made all the healthy people not even dare to approach
us. The doctor, the nurses, the other civil servants and the women
who washed our clothes, would all leave the island with a motorboat
a little before sundown, and go to the village of Plaka to the west
and opposite Spinalonga Island. Journalists
called Spinalonga the 'Island of the living dead', and officials did
not wish to stay the night with the lepers.
We all felt the need for a priest. He alone could
comfort us with God's word and support us spiritually. But a priest
would come to our island from Elounda only twice a month.
He would come Saturday evening, serve Vespers, and then
depart. He would come again the next day, serve the Divine Liturgy,
and depart. He would also come at other times: for the unavoidable
necessity to inter our dead!
One day some of us men were sitting in the yard of our
café, which was close to the main gate.
Then a priest appeared at a distance.
We all understood that he had come to the island to officiate
in the church. As soon as he saw us, he approached us. He bade us
good morning kindheartedly.
We all stood up and welcomed him with a slight bow. But
none of us extended their hand to greet him. A leper must never
shake hands, the reason being, he might transmit his accursed
sickness. But then he greeted us all with a handshake! He told us
very simply that he would be staying with us, to help us fulfill our
Christian duties. Our emotion was immense.”
The narration regarding the second
day on Fr.
Chrysanthos’ island was as follows: “The next day we went to the
church of St. Panteleimon. All of us - men, women and children -
participated with due solemnity in the Divine Liturgy, which was
served with Doric simplicity and unfathomable piety. That Sunday we
didn’t receive Holy Communion. We had not been informed in time for
the Divine Liturgy and we had not fasted. At the end of the Liturgy,
we received the Antidoron bread morsels from his hand. And as we
took the Antidoron, we ALL kissed his hand!
It was something that he himself had aspired to do; as
he distributed the Antidoron, he intentionally moved his hand closer
to our mouths.
Everyone’s eyes filled with tears of emotion.
Before his arrival, we would take the Antidoron
ourselves, from a reed basket that the sacristan placed on the
candle counter. On the following Sunday, practically all of us went
to church. The church was packed, as was its courtyard. On that day,
we all received Holy Communion. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, we
noticed that our priest was consuming the remnant of the content in
the Holy chalice, after all of us had partaken of it!
All of us stood with eyes opened wide in surprise. We
thought we were dreaming. Large beads of hot tears welled up from
our eyes. The previous priest would pour the remnant of the Holy
Chalice into the special disposal crucible (naturally per Divine
Providence); he would not consume it himself.
The priest-monk Chrysanthos stayed with us night and
day. And he stayed with us for ten whole years! During those years,
he showed his love for all of us. He would visit us at our homes. He
guided us all. He helped the poor with what little money he had; and
he did that, by observing the gospel words: ‘Don't let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing’. Like all the other
patients of Spinalonga, I too am grateful to Father Chrysanthos for
.....”, but was unable to complete his phrase. He burst into a muted
sobbing”.
“Father Chrysanthos,” continued Mr. Papadakis, “with
his gaze focused on the floor as he listened to the descriptions by
the former leper, commented with an inner grandeur: “ 'I don’t
believe what I did was something so great. It is what every
officiator of the Most High and what every Christian would have
done. I just helped our
fellow-man as much as I could, to lift up their Cross upon their
Calvary. After all, their sickness is not transmitted with Holy
Communion – with the Body and the Blood of Christ.’ “
He stayed there to tend to the graves!
Father Chrysanthos - emotionally charged - spoke to Mr. Papadakis about his decision to stay on the island when everyone had departed from it: 'The Spinalonga Leper Colony was shut down. It was July of 1957. Everyone left the island; only I remained there.' I asked him why, and he replied: 'I had to tend to the graves of the Hansenites. Furthermore, as I stood before their graves, I had to chant prayers for the repose of their souls. I abandoned the island in 1959. My health was shaken. That’s when I left the island. My Bishop placed me in this Monastery.’ “...
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