The Glorification of Hieromonk Hieronymos of Parnithi

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Created on Friday, 14 June 2024 18:34

The Life of Saint Hieronymos the Hagiorite of Crete

Who was Elder Hieronymos? He was born in Crete, in the village of Vlatos (district of Kisamos, county of Chania), in 1867, to pious parents, and was nurtured by the waters of faith and godliness. At an early age, a yearning for the things of God, which inflamed his pure and God-loving heart, impelled him to forsake the world and flee to the Holy Mountain, where he lived the cœnobitic life at the Holy Monastery of St. Paul and applied himself with great zeal to the spiritual struggles of the Angelic way of life. Within a short time, in return for his good obedience and total dedication to the fulfillment of the Divine commandments, he was adorned with virtues and spiritual gifts. At a suitable age, he was Ordained Deacon and Presbyter. He correspondingly increased his labors of abstinence, fasting, and prayer, vigil and hardship, and also his humility and love for God and for all man- kind. He ate very little and Liturgized daily.

Seeing his Godly zeal and spiritual progress, the Abbot of the monastery gave him a blessing to live as a hesychast in the monasteryʼs Holy Trinity hermitage (asketerion) and to come down to the monastery only when it was necessary for him to serve Liturgy. There, his devotion to the work of watchfulness made him worthy of richer spiritual gifts, and, in particular, of clairvoyance and foresight, which were, indeed, displayed subsequently when Our Lady the Theotokos appeared to him. After a considerable period of time had elapsed, he lived as a cœnobite, briefly, at the Holy Monastery of Simonopetra, ending up at the Skete of St. Panteleimon, a dependency of the Holy Monastery of Koutloumousiou. Fathers from the entire Holy Mountain thronged there for spiritual guidance and counsel, especially concerning noetic prayer and dispassion. In 1920, the Elder was sent by the governing body of the Holy Mountain to Crete, the island of his birth, together with the Precious Gifts of the Magi, which are preserved in the Monastery of St. Paul, in order to deal with a pestilential disease. On his return journey, he passed through Athens, where he confessed a great multitude of the Faithful.

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