At Agios Georgios (St. George) parish church, in
Dionysos, Attica (at the foot of Penteli Mountain, near Athens), I met
hieromonk Markos Manolis. I was 23 years old then. The heights of his ascetics
and self-sacrifice are unparalleled. He never slept and was always there for
his spiritual children. A great many of his spiritual children had seen him
walking above the ground during the Holy Liturgy. When he first saw me, he
called me by my first name. I had never known him before. How come he knew my
name? His great humility and abstention from sleep and unceasing prayers had
opened his spiritual eyes and he was endowed with the gift of foresight. He was
one of the most militant adversaries of ecumenism, spiritual leader of the “Orthodoxos Typos” newspaper, but above
all a true spiritual father and leader of many spiritual brothers and sisters
in Christ in villages, towns, hospitals, jails around Athens and in Athens
itself. The memorial of the dormition of
Hieromonk Markos Manolis is approaching and I think everyone who was blessed to
have met him feels strongly that Fr. Markos is not dead, but among us! A great intercessor for all of us
sinners.
By Sofia Kioroglou
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