The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 5:22-6:2 (Epistle Reading for the Feast of St. Paisios the Athonite)
If you were born before 1994, St. Paisios was alive in your lifetime. If you were born before 2015, St. Paisios became a saint in your lifetime. I had just finished college in 1994 when St. Paisios passed away on July 12, 1994. As of this writing, in 2024, St. Paisios has been a saint for less than ten years. For the first 17 years of my priesthood, there was no St. Paisios and no feastday in his honor. This year, in my church, and in many others, we will celebrate the Divine Liturgy today and commemorate him as a saint of the church.
There are many things that are encouraging about the life of St. Paisios. First, he wasn’t martyred. Becoming a saint does not require one to be tortured and killed. Second, he wasn’t very old when he died, only 69. And third, he was not a bishop, or highly educated.
Born Arsenios Eznepidis, he enlisted in the army during the civil war in Greece. Having completed his military service, he went to Mount Athos in 1950 and entered into monastic life. He was given the name Averkios. When he was tonsured a monk in 1954, he was given the name Paisios. He left Mount Athos for two years in 1962-1963 and was attached to the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, returning to Mt. Athos in 1964. He had a serious operation on his lungs in 1966, and during his hospital stay, he began a long friendship with the sisterhood of St. John the Theologian near Thessaloniki.
Saint Paisios had the gift of prophecy, and his prophecies were written and published by Hieromonk Makarios of Mount Athos. He had many works published, and foresaw future events that have now come to pass. He was a man of intense prayer, and intense kindness. He suffered from various health challenges including cancer but kept receiving pilgrims even when he was in great pain. His renown as an “elder” (Geronta) came as a result of his ministry to the sick and suffering people. He would sleep only two or three hours per night, maintained a strict regimen of prayer, and in turn radiated God’s grace through his humility and discipline to the many who came to him for prayer and counsel. His life was not easy, despite his prayerful state. He was beset with illness his entire life even to its very end, but demonstrated a spiritual strength beyond any of his contemporaries. When he passed away, thousands of pilgrims visited his tomb. Miracles have been attributed to this saintly man. Together with his writing, the humble spirit of this simple monk caused a cry for sainthood to come from the people. The life of St. Paisios was recognized by many as very pious and God-centered. His canonization as a saint took only twenty-one years, the second fastest process in recently history.
The life of St. Paisios embodied the Fruit of the Spirit, which we read in Galatians 5, which is now the Epistle lesson read on his feastday. He demonstrated love to all who came to see him. He took great joy in his work, even though he suffered from many physical ailments. He brought peace to the world. He worked for peace as a soldier, sought the peace of God in prayer, and brought God’s peace to the troubled souls who came to him.
We all know from experience that when we are tired, we struggle with patience. St. Paisios lived in a perpetual state of fatigue and yet he found patience to minister to every pilgrim who sought him out. In the same way, he demonstrated kindness, especially to those who were very sick, and became a ray of hope for many. Jesus says in Luke 18:19, that “No one is good but God alone.” St. Paisios not only steadfastly believed in the goodness of God, even as he struggled with debilitating pain throughout most of his life, he was able to radiate God’s goodness even in his most challenging moments.
Saint Paisios faithfully served God. It was all he ever wanted to do. He had no desire for earthly fame or fortune, just to live in union with Christ. His faithfulness, however, was noticed, and it brought him a spiritual fame which catapulted him towards sainthood. He was a gentle spirit, and allowed the grace of the Holy Spirit to flow through him. He became a vessel of gentleness. And finally, it takes great self-control to live an ascetic life, to maintain a constant vigil of prayer, to mortify passions that tempt us, and to remain in control of one’s thoughts even as one is betrayed by physical health.
The path to sainthood is found, among other places, in cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit. The interesting thing, however, about these Fruit, is that they are interrelated. When one cultivates one of them, the others follow. Rather than trying to master all nine of them, choose one—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control—and strive to live your life with one of them in the lead. Work on one, and you will automatically improve on the others. If you are looking for a place to start, or restart, your spiritual life, find one of these that you don’t think you are very good at, and focus on that. Focus on just one of these and connect with it on a daily basis.
Once the fire of love for the Lord was lit in you, through ascetical rigor you gave yourself to God. O God-bearing St. Paisios, for many you became consolation, giving counsel with God-inspired words, and by your prayers working wonder. And now, devout one, you intercede for the whole world unceasingly. (Apoytikion of St. Paisios, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)
The saints and their stories do not belong exclusively to many centuries in the past. There are saintly people who walk the earth today, who at some point will be recognized and canonized as saints. The story of St. Paisios reminds us of this.
