Venerable Paisios the Hagiorite (Eznepidis)

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the previously listed date "July 12 (O.S.)" was mislabeled by style — July 12 is the New Style date (day of repose per the Gregorian calendar), while the Old Style equivalent is June 29; the style has been corrected.

Venerable Paisios, born Arsenios Eznepidis, was born July 25, 1924 (July 7 O.S.), in Farasa (Cappadocia) shortly before the Greek-Turkish population exchange; tradition holds he was baptized by St. Arsenios of Cappadocia himself, in whose honor he was named. After military service (a radio operator in the Signal Corps during the Greek Civil War), he arrived on Mount Athos in 1950 as a novice under Elder Cyril. He was tonsured rasophore under the name Averky in 1954 at Esphigmenou, and in 1957 took the small schema under the name Paisios (Iveron Skete, Philotheou tradition).

He lived at Stomion, Mount Sinai (1958–1962), then returned to Athos, settling at the Iveron Skete of the Honorable Cross, survived a serious lung illness (partial lung removal, 1966), after which he moved to Katounakia (1967), and then to the Panagouda cell of Koutloumousiou Monastery (1978–1993), where he became one of the most sought-after spiritual elders of the 20th century, receiving an enormous number of pilgrims and correspondents seeking spiritual counsel.

Terminally ill with colon cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and liver, he left Athos for the last time in October 1993 and died at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Souroti near Thessaloniki on July 12, 1994. His grave there quickly became a major pilgrimage site. He was officially canonized by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (under Patriarch Bartholomew) on January 13, 2015, with his feast fixed on the day of his repose. The Russian Orthodox Church added him to its calendar on May 5, 2015. He is among the most significant and widely venerated saints canonized in the modern era.

His feast is kept on June 29/July 12.