☦Monk Joseph the Cypriot (1886 – May 30, 1992), who lived in the skete of Saint Panteleimon, which belonged to the monastery of Koutloumousiou🏡
In the worldly realm, the elder bore the name John Hatzipanayiotus. His pious, hospitable, simple, and poor parents were named Nicholas and Panayota. He was born on the island of Cyprus in the village of Rizokarpaso, which is now occupied by the Turks.
In 1902, he came to Mount Athos and never returned to Cyprus, but he always remembered, loved, and prayed for it. He said, "Cyprus has always been in my heart because it is the island of saints." He often recalled his village, with its many churches, good morals, and traditions.
In his homeland, the elder learned some carpentry, intending to work as a joiner. However, looking at the monks' faces, he saw God in them. "God is in them," he said, and decided to become a monk.
He lived in different parts of the Holy Mountain, but finally settled in the kaliva of St. Ioannikios, in the skete of St. Panteleimon, which belongs to the monastery of Koutloumousiou, under the guidance of the virtuous elder Ioannikios († 1909), by whom he was tonsured into monasticism.
One day, during the all-night vigil at Karakal Monastery, on the feast day of the Holy Apostles, Elder Joseph, while praying, saw the Apostle Paul standing in the high place. As he himself recounted it: "With a bald head and a beard, as he is depicted in icons, delivering a sermon... I didn't know whether I was awake or asleep. I only remember his words: 'Even if a person lives one day on earth, if he is not careful, he can end up in hell...' These words have remained imprinted on my heart to this day."
And indeed, although many years had passed since then, he recalled this incident as if it had happened yesterday evening.
The elder endured many trials: voluntary and involuntary hunger, poverty, deprivation, hardship, and suffering. Frequent illnesses and numerous temptations exhausted him, but did not plunge him into despair.
He accepted everything as sent from God.
Sometimes he would object or argue about something, like a human being, but he was very simple and soon regretted it. He had some quirks, but they didn't cause any misunderstandings, since those around him respected his many years of ascetic labor.
He trusted God and was very devoted to the Holy Mother of God.
"The beauty of beauties," the elder called her. Next to his bed was a small icon of the Virgin Mary Economissa. "Everything I ask of Her, She gives me," Elder Joseph said.
One by one, going over in his mind the Athonite miraculous icons of the Mother of God, he said: “As I go over my rosary, I turn to the ‘Sweet Kiss’ from Philotheus, so that it may protect me, to the ‘Ecomnomissa’ from the Great Lavra, so that it may nourish me, to the ‘Otrada’ from Vatopedi, so that it may quench my sorrows.”
If someone wronged him, he left it to God's care. Despite walking on crutches for sixty years, he was never slow. At a hundred years old, he even climbed onto a roof to mend it.
One day, the elder went to Xenophontos Monastery to pick olives. Upon returning, he found the roof of St. Ioannikios's kaliva blown off by a strong south wind. Elder Joseph was so distressed that he even developed a headache from the experience.
Then he asked to be left alone in the narthex of the skete church, whose patron saint was the holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon. After spending three days there in fasting and prayer, he became healthy. Saint Panteleimon appeared to him in a cloud and healed him.
He often said: “I thank the holy God who gave me such a blessing as illness, and therefore I am more occupied with spiritual matters.”
He prayed for those who helped him, counting his rosary beads. He loved to read the Psalter.
Every time he was about to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, the elder would stay awake all night until the morning and, in addition to the rules for Communion, would read the entire Psalter.
Elder Joseph said, “Glory to God. I’m sitting here, counting my prayer beads. I’m reading the Psalter. It’s the most beautiful book in the world. What beautiful words. God Himself speaks. He found a man after His own heart—David. Do you hear what God’s lips say? David was like the heart of God. A great man. On Sundays, I read the Psalter, the Gospel, and the Epistle. I like these three books.
They dominate the Church. I have other books too. Lives of the Saints. I've read them many times. But I don't like the new books that priests write."
One day, the elder lost his glasses and was restless for several days—he missed reading the Psalter so much. When his glasses arrived, he was overjoyed and read the entire Psalter in one day.
One day, Elder Joseph wanted to repair a rotten plank in the floor of his hut. He cleared the area of rot, took precise measurements, cut a new plank, and began installing it. When he set it in place, it turned out to be larger than it should have been. He picked it up, cut off the excess, and returned to install it, but found it was already smaller than it should have been.
Elder Joseph was a carpenter by profession.
He takes another measurement, cuts another board to the required dimensions with great precision, and goes to place it in the floor—and again, it turns out to be too big. He cut off the excess, and when he tried to hammer a nail in, the board turned out to be too small.
Finally, he lost his patience and said angrily, "Go to hell. What is this? What can I do to make it fit? I measured four times and cut four times. What the hell is wrong, why doesn't this board fit?"
Immediately the devil appeared before him in all his hideous form and said to him: "You called me, old man? What's wrong with you? Do you need anything? I'm here to help you."
Elder Joseph crossed himself in horror, dropped the board, and ran to his spiritual father for confession, but since then he has never fully recovered. He remains plagued by fears and a feeling of emptiness in his head, as if it were a "reward" from the devil.
When the elder turned one hundred, he wondered why God hadn't taken him from this life. He eagerly awaited death. He asked for a cross to be made for his grave so that he could see it every day.
Monk Moses recounted: "Once, when I brought several of my friends to him to receive his blessing, he asked them for money for their prayers, in order to shame me and to damage his standing in their eyes. Even though the elder had previously given me his small savings, which he had kept for the remembrance of his soul. And so I no longer brought people to him, and he was no longer revered."
The fathers of the Vatopedi Monastery wanted to take him away and take care of him, but he asked to be allowed to die in his kalyva.
Elder Joseph reposed in the Lord on Trinity Saturday, May 30, 1992, and was buried in the skete cemetery on Pentecost Sunday, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in the form of tongues of fire and their hope was fulfilled.
🏔Mount Athos / Garden of the Holy Virgin ⚜️
