|
Commemorated on February 15
He was born in 1869 to devout peasants on Chios; he left
elementary school early to become a shoemender. At the age of nineteen he
visited a monastery (founded by the monk Pachomios, who had been the spiritual
counsellor of St Nektarios); he was so moved by the monks' 'angelic life' that
on returning home he built himself a small hut and dwelt in it. His only 'help'
in his spiritual contests was an icon of the Mother of God, which soon began to
work miracles, drawing many to his hermitage. After a time he retired to a
monastery where he was tonsured under the name Anthimos. He fell ill there, and
his abbot sent him home to his parents for the sake of his health. At home,
despite the fact that he was caring for his aged parents and practicing his
shoemender's trade, he continued to live as a monk, spending nights on end in
prayer and sometimes living only on bread and water for extended periods.
Increasing numbers of visitors came to his hermitage and wonder-working icon
of the Theotokos, and in 1910 he received the Great Schema. The people of Chios
wanted him to be ordained to the priesthood, but his bishop refused due to the
Saint's lack of education. At the prompting of Anthimos' godfather, the Bishop
of Smyrna ordained him instead. After a pilgrimage to Mt Athos, he returned to
Chios, where he became chaplain to a leper hospital. Soon the hospital, which
had fallen into corruption, became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery
as a hospital. Saint Anthimos tended many of the sickest with his own hands,
working many miracles of healing; some of his recovered patients became monks or
nuns.
With the notorious 'Exchange of Populations' of 1922-1924, refugees poured
into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. In response to a vision of
the Mother of God, St Anthimos built a monastery, which opened with thirty nuns
and grew rapidly, despite the opposition of many who said that setting up such a
community was out of date (in 1924!). The monastery soon housed eighty nuns and
was known througout Greece as a model of monastic life. Father Anthimos served
as priest to the nuns, and continued to receive the many faithful — often sixty
or seventy per day — who came to him for prayer or counsel. He carried on this
ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he
was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his cell and prayed that he be
enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath. He reposed in peace at the
age of ninety-one, mourned and revered by the whole island of Chios.
|
Close window |