Two Miraculous stories of St. Paisios on Mt. Athos

2 Miraculous stories of
St. Paisios on Mt. Athos:

(First story)

“On one of my many visits to the Elder (St. Paisios),” relates a pilgrim (Matthew Golias of Ioannina) “I had my son, Constantine, with me. I said to the Elder, ‘Constantine is a mountain-climber, and he even does very dangerous scaling on the rocks.’

“‘Constantine,’ the Elder said, ‘you can (should) climb high (spiritual) mountains, because that’s how you get closer to God. But don’t go rock-climbing again, because it feeds your pride.’

And the Elder had a long talk with him, giving examples from his time in the army. Later, he saw us off at the gate, he kissed Constantine on the head and repeated, ‘Don’t go rock-climbing. But if you end up doing it (again) some time, I’ll pray for you.’ Well, on the basis of that little opening, Constantine continued to rock-climb without telling us.

“In September, I made another trip to see the Elder. There were a lot of people there; and, as soon as he saw me, he said, ‘Sit here till the end, so I can tell you something important.’

Afterward, he said, ‘Constantine fell while he was rock-climbing. It was 65 feet from one anchor (drop) to the other, and the Panagia held him in her arms. I saw it with my own eyes.’

“As soon as I got back to the hermitage where I (the dad) was staying, I called Constantine in Athens, where he was studying. ‘Constantine,’ I asked, ‘did you fall during a dangerous climb?’
“‘How do you know that?’ he replied.
‘I know.’
‘Are you at the Elder’s?’ he asked immediately. I said that I was, and he replied, ‘Go thank him for me, and tell him that I’ll sell all my equipment, and I won’t climb again.’ And that’s just what happened.”



(Second story)

*In this very beautiful and inspiring testimony, Nondas Skopeteas, writer and radio producer, talks about the miracle performed by St. Paisios with Konstantinos Melitsos, a man who suffered from Paralysis with neurological ataxia (a rare neurological disease).


“Kostas Melitsos is the hero, one of the heroes next door as we often call them. He grew up in the neighbourhoods of Argos. He was born in the 1960s.

A child full of joy who loved to wander around the narrow alleys of Argos, to climb the stairs to the castle of Portokalousa, to St. Marina, to go to the ancient theatre… He loved this city, he loved wandering around all the time.

At some point, however, the spring of his youth got cloudy and all of a sudden… He was diagnosed with a rare disease, as they then said: ‘Paralysis with neurological ataxia,’ is the term they used. Something which meant that from this time onwards, Kostas could not move at all.”

“Still, he prayed ceaselessly for a miracle to happen and he was a very loved child, and the whole city was taking care of (their) Kostas. One would go in the morning to wake him up, another to help him prepare, another to prepare food for him, another to clean him, another to read him, another to give him his treatment.

A whole city, a whole neighbourhood so to say, a big neighbourhood would pass by his house and take care of him. He would pass his time with his wheelchair at the cantor’s place at (the church of) St. John the Forerunner in Argos.”

“But also in Mt. Athos where he wished to be all the time and the Fathers, without grumbling, would welcome him and host him. Particularly, in Philotheou Monastery, he had his own cell. The Fathers there had also made a special ramp for him so he could climb with his wheelchair so that he would not feel like a burden to them.”

“So, he would pray in front of all our “Panagies” (icons of the holy Virgin Mary) in Mt. Athos and Panagia Glykophilousa in Philotheou Monastery to intercede so that a miracle would happen and he would be able to stand on his feet like old times when he was young.”

“Once, he found himself in the beautiful guesthouse (“archontariki”) of Gregoriou Monastery. There in Aplotaria. A kind man approached him, an incredibly wealthy one.

He was very caring, he approached him with love and offered to pay all expenses for Kostas to go to America and perform a cell transplant procedure.

As you could understand, Kostas was filled with hope and felt like his prayers might have been heard and the big miracle was about to happen.

America, suddenly, turned into a really close destination. A shorter trip, even when compared to the Karyes-Panagouda (two locations on Mt. Athos), as he could travel easier to America than to Panagouda (where Elder/Geronda Paisios lived).

We all knew how difficult the terrain path to Panagouda was. Still, someone had to give his blessing, to make sure that this endeavour of Kostas going to America for the procedure was blessed. The right person for this was the Saintly ascetic of Panagouda, Elder Paisios.

*Reached Capacity: