Icon of Saint Bessarion the Agathonite

Icon of Saint Vissarion the Agathonite polished with handmade silk screen printing on a polished gold background in various dimensions.

Celebration 27 August

Hosios Vissarion was born in 1908 and came from Petalidi in Messinia, where he learned his first letters. He was the son of a large and poor family. ‘From a good root, good fruit has sprung up’ (idiom of the esperion of the feast of Saint Simeon of Stylist).

At the age of 16, the words of the psalmist, “As the deer drinketh upon the fountains of waters, so shall my soul drink unto thee, O God” (Psalm 41:1), were fully applied to him. Driven by a desire and an attraction, he left his home, without informing anyone, and went to the Monastery of Our Lady of Demiova, which functioned as a male monastery until the occupation and was reopened in 1951.

In 1928, after three years of struggle, he became a monk in the above Monastery, by the then Abbot of the Monastery, Archimandrite Nikephoros, who gave him the name Vissarion in honour of Saint Vissarion Archbishop of Larissa, whom he had as a model and revered.

At the age of 23, on December 12, 1931, the feast of Saint Spyridon of Trimythus of Cyprus, he was ordained Deacon by Metropolitan Meletios Sakellaropoulos of Messinia.

After two years, on September 15, 1933, he was ordained to the second degree of the priesthood, that of Elder.

Demonstrating diligence, special zeal and enrichment in Christian virtues, the then Metropolitan of Messinia Polycarp Synodinos promoted him to Archimandrite and Spiritual Director, so that he could rest the weary souls of the people of his time.

After his ordination he went to the Metropolis of Karditsa, with the then Bishop Iezekiel, where he remained for 10 years.

As a true exponent of the Orthodox Church, with a sensitive soul and a living conscience, invoking the enlightenment of the Saints, he gave all his strength to God’s rich people. He ministered in several villages with many problems, such as hunger, diseases.

A man of sacrifice, with a spirit of patriotism, not expecting recognition from anyone but from the One, responding to the call of every fellow human being out of love.

His work, unfortunately, was not appreciated by all, and some, instead of putting on his beneficial crown and honoring his support, love and sympathy, envied him and accused him of “Blessed are the mourners, for they are being tempted” (Matt. 5, 4) and “all who would piously seek after Christ are persecuted” (2 Tim. 3, 12).

However, God is more sympathetic to the unrighteous and strengthens them with his abundant grace. “Let there be light for the righteous and gladness of heart” (Psalm 9:96).

The loving spiritual father, the protector of the poor, the guardian of sinners, the storyteller of the afflicted, the physician of the sick, the virtuous man, the friend of the afflicted, the bacillus of the aged, the tireless worker, who “in everything was made tapas, He, like the other Paul, ended his holy struggle in this vain world on January 22, 1991, the day on which he gave up the vain and perishable and deserved to receive the sinful crown of glory (1 Corinthians 9:22).

On March 3, 2006, 15 years later, his indestructible tomb was exhumed, which was in perfect condition, even his holy vestments and shoes.

There are countless testimonies about the appearance of Saint Vissarion after the retrieval of his holy tabernacle. (Archim. Damaskinos Th. “Vissarion the Agathonite, the Merciful Spiritualist”, published by the Holy Monastery of Agathon, 2017).

Let us have as a beacon and guide in our lives, and at the same time self-control of our consciences, the personality of Saint Bessarion, and through his intercessions glorify the all-honourable and majestic name of the Leader of our lives, our Lord Jesus Christ.

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