ELDER EPHREM OF ARIZONA AND THE OLD CALENDAR ZEALOTS

The untold story of miracles and holy men

A transcript of a talk by His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrios of America (GOC-K) in response to a

(Transcribed by Michael Chacra)

*************************************

PART 1: 0:00 – 4:15

…With all do respect, certain things need to be clarified with regards to statements made
by Elder Ephraim of Arizona in his book called “My Elder Joseph the Hesychast”.

He’s got a section in there about the Old Calendarists, about the zealots. And Father
Ephraim claims that Father (Elder) Joseph stated that the zealots are “planamenoi”,
meaning that they are in delusion, or deceived. And this is a very general statement, and
it is problematic for Fr. Joseph himself, if he really made this statement, because just a
day before Elder Joseph was a zealot himself. So it creates a Gordian knot (a complex
unsolvable problem - Transcriber) and there is a reason why Elder Joseph was a zealot,
was because he discovered that the righteous fathers of the holy mountain of Athos who
have progressed in prayer, who knew something about the hesychastic life, who knew
something about the power of the Jesus Prayer, were themselves zealot fathers.

Those fathers themselves are actually mentioned by name in his book. For example, Elder
Kallinikos the Hesychast (of Katounakia). Elder Kallinikos was a practitioner of the Jesus
Prayer, and he was a true hesychast. He lived in Katounakia, in the desert region of Mount
Athos, and he was – if anyone would be called a hesychast – he was the hesychast of the
time. He was THE hesychast. And he was a zealot. And I would say that he was probably
one of the stricter type of the zealots. Because the zealots were divided into two factions.
The Old Calendarists were either Mathewites or Florinites. Of course at this time Mathew
himself was not ordained bishop. But the difference between the two was that the
Mathewites were the ultra-conservatives who believed that the New Calendarists all were
graceless from 1924 onwards. And the Florinites were called Florinites because they were
the followers of [St.] Metropolitan Chrysostomos, formerly the bishop of Florina, who
stated that you can’t really come up with such conclusions so fast.

But Elder Kallinikos was of the stricter faction. He believed that the New Calendarists
were graceless. In fact, there is a famous quote that is referenced to him. Apparently he
said that the New Calendar baptism is a bath and not baptism. And of course for us that
sounds very extreme, especially at that time. But anyhow, he was a holy man. A god-
bearer really. As someone who really understood the power of the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So much so that his mind was so illumined that at the time of heresy he was ready
to defend the Orthodox Church.

There was another holy elder that was mentioned there, Elder Daniel, who belonged to
Megisti Lavra, the monastery of the Great Lavra, but he wasn’t a monk of the monastery.
He was a monk in one of the kellia, one of the cells, and he was a hesychast. He would
pray the liturgies and Elder Joseph and Elder Arsenios would go to these liturgies and they
would call those liturgies of elder Daniel “a mestagoigia”, ie it was a grace-filled event
and it was just, they would be saturated from the holiness coming from this holy elder
who would pray the Divine Liturgy, then he would say a few words after the Divine
Liturgy, and then he would go and do his hesychastic business. This elder Daniel, was also
as we said, a zealot. And these were his two most influential elders at the beginning of
Elder Joseph’s boria, his path in this hesychastic life. So elder Joseph himself was aligned
with these fathers who believed that the NCs were graceless.

But then he started getting thoughts.

PART 2: 4:10 – 11:02

And he prayed about things. Apparently it says there in the life that he prayed, and then
they left the stricter faction to join the synod of Met. [St.] Chrysostomos of Florina who
was a righteous man of God and he had heard about that. And he wrote a letter to him
asking for forgiveness, and Met. Chrysostomos wrote back to him and said “All is fine.
And I accept you all.” And then he had another vision, and then he left Met. [St.]
Chrysosotomos and decided to leave the zealots altogether, and then eventually he started
commemorating the Patriarch, and then eventually his synodia went back and forth.

One thing is consistent and the one consistent thing is that there are a lot of inconsistencies
with regards of what is going on here. Because of this Gordian knot that I am talking about
which is actually confusing – most people that read this book can’t really read behind the
lines. They just read this statement and they think: “Well Elder Joseph then it must be the
end of the story”. Well, these other holy fathers did not believe that.

There’s another elder mentioned in this book, Elder Ieronymos of Aegina. Elder
Ieronymos was exceptional man of prayer. He had compunctionate prayer. He had the
prayer of the heart. And the situation of Elder Ieronymos was actually the opposite. Elder
Ieronymos continued to serve under the so-called official churches after the change of the
calendar, but he was having conscious pangs about it. And he prayed and he prayed, and
then God made it clear to him that he join the zealots. So he went to Met. Chrysostomos
of Florina. And then he continued with the synod. The bishop that buried him was Met.
Akakios of Diavleia. He is one of our bishops. He is still alive. He is in his 90s (Met.
Akakios reposed in late 2019 - Transcriber).

Elder Ieronymos had a greater gift of clairvoyance than Elder Joseph. It is pretty evident
from his life and from the people that knew him. And even foreknowledge, because they
are two different things. Sometimes God reveals certain things; sometimes God does not
reveal certain things. St. Macarios of Egypt says in one of his ascetical homilies, he says
that even the disciples of Our Lord themselves weren’t exactly able to work miracles every
single time that they wanted to, because that was up to God. God is the one works miracles.
So, Saint Ieronymos met with Elder Arsenios, the co-ascetic of elder Joseph before Fr.
Arsenios met elder Joseph, in the Holy Land, at the monastery of St. John the Baptist on
the Jordan. So elder Arsenios learned a few things about prayer from elder Ieronymous
and he had a very very high opinion about Elder Ieronymos. Finally the nun who was with
elder Ieronymos and stayed with him up to his death is the sister according to the flesh of
Father Arsenios.

There was another contemporary of Elder Ieronymos. His name was elder John of
Amphiali (Saint John the New Almsgiver of Amphiali). He was the founder of the
monastery of Saint Demetrious in Piraeus and also of the Holy Trinity in Amphiali. This
man literally raised the dead. He was a miracle worker, both during his life and after his
life. At one time he went to visit Elder Ieronymous, and Elder Ieronymous said “Please
leave”. This was a shock to sister Evpraxia, the nun who was with the elder, and she said
to Elder Ieronymous, “how could you do such a thing. How could you ask Fr. John to
leave. This is the Fr .John. “And elder Ieronymous said, “Nun, leave me. I did not see a
human being, all I could see was an effulgence of light. And that man is a Saint of God
and I am not worthy to hear his confession, and I am not worthy to be in his presence.”
And this St. John of Amphiali, whom we consider a saint, because he is a Saint, was the
confessor of Met. St. Chrysosotmos of Florina. And it was revealed to Fr. John of
Amphiali that Met. Chrysostomos was going to repose, and so he went to see the bishop
and he told him about his revelation. And the Metropolitan said I had the same revelation,
and so, the one confessed to the other and he took Holy Communion and he had reposed
with a righteous ending.

So, these are the people now who are under Met. Chrysostomos. And so, on the one hand
he’s (ie Elder Ephraim in his book) praising Elder Ieronymos, but on the other hand they
are considering Met. Chrysostomos to be I guess a schismatic, they don’t come out and
say ‘schismatic’. They don’t use that word. In any case, this is the conclusion that a lot of
people can get from reading this book.

There are a series of books written in Greek by Father Cherobeim called “Contemporary
Ascetics on Mount Athos.” These books were translated and printed by the Saint Herman
of Alaska monastery in Platina, CA. They are really good lives, very edifying, particularly
for monastics. One of the lives comes to mind, Father Joachim, who was one of the fathers’
of St. Anne’s Skete (Elder Joachim of St. Anne’s Skete). He was a zealot father, meaning
he was a non-commemorator . He belonged to the synodia which did not commemorate
the Patriarch of Constantinople for matters of faith, as many fathers of the time did. And
he was in America, and he was scandalized by the fact that many of the modernistic clergy
in America cut their hairs, trim their beards, shaved their beards, and wouldn’t wear a rasa,
so he prayed to the Mother of God to be deemed worthy to always wear his rasa until his
last breath, to have long hair, long beard. So here we see a very unique phenomenon. His
beard grew down to the floor, and he used to carry it in a sack. There is a photograph of
him in the life, and once again, he also was one of those fathers who did not commemorate
the Patriarch of Constantinople.

You know we can write volumes and volumes about all these Old Calendar elders (there
were many more of them). There is also Elder Moses of Athikia. He is just an absolutely
phenomenal person. This is just …the details of his life are unbelievable. He reposed in
the 1940s. Elder Ieronymos reposed I think in 1966. They were all contemporaries.

PART III - 11:02 – 16:32

Then, just a few years before Elder Joseph’s repose, he received an encyclical. Now this
was the thing that really prompted this move. To leave the zealots. He received an
encyclical from the synod of the GOC under Met. Chrysostomos stating that the official
so-called New Calendar church of Greece was graceless. And he thought, “wait a second
now, we came here so we don’t have to deal with all that”. And of course, even here, the
rumor ran “there was one encyclical, there was another encyclical” It’s not exactly clear.
It was a prospathia. It was an endeavor to bring together all the Old Calendarists, the two
factions. Met. Chrysostomos didn’t totally believe that, that they were graceless. He made
that statement so that he could bring the other faction together.

So, elder Joseph was upset, he was quite irritated over this encyclical. So he said “Fathers”
-- now reading from the life it seems he already made up his mind – but he said “Fathers,
we need to pray”. So, he went in and closed himself in his cell and prayed for three days
and then he came out and said “Fathers, we’re leaving.” So, they did not all accept it very
easily. In fact the older fathers had a problem with it. Father Arsenios, he had a problem
with Patriarch Athenagoras. The younger ones had no problem - –Father Ephraim, Father
Joseph, Father Charalambos. But, Father Ephraim himself (of Katounakia) – another
Father Ephrem (not the Arizona guy) who is not exactly part of the Synodia but had Elder
Joseph as his spiritual father – said something very significant to him that is recorded in
his life. He said: “Geronda, Elder, you know that even the chosen, even the elect can fall
into delusion in the last days.” Well of course, even in the first centuries of the church, the
elect were always faced with the problem of demons appearing as angels of light. So, you
see, this is very very sort of a danger zone, when we are dealing with dreams, particularly
dreams, visions, and voices. I am not saying that it does not happen. Because if I say that,
then I might as well just cut out a lot of the lives of the saints, the details of the lives of
the Saints. Because you find this obviously. But the fathers, even some of those fathers
themselves who had these visions, did say that you had to be very cautious. St. John of
the Ladder said don’t accept any dreams. It could be – and I am not saying that Elder
Joseph was planamenous himself – that he was totally in delusion, but it could be that
there was a delusion here or there. That happens.

But now we are continuing with the inconsistencies. Because, on the one hand, we read,
in this life, the dreams that he had at that time. And in another life, I think it was Fr. Joseph
of Dionysiou, who wrote the life of Elder Ephraim of Katounakia -- Something different.
In this life, it says that “Elder Joseph had a dream, that he was in church, that were
bickering among themselves. He says yes, we are in the Church but we had no elefthreo
pnevma – the spirit of freedom, or a free spirit.” So, of course you can come to the
conclusion that perhaps, they are all part of the Church but the zealot fathers are too busy
bickering so that you don’t want to be with them because you are not going to have a free
spirit. On the other hand, the book written by this Father Joseph (of Dionysiou) says
something different. It says that Elder Joseph found himself on a piece of land that was
separated from the Holy Mountain of Athos, and then he jumped off and went onto the
main land, for safety. And then after he jumped off that little piece of land fell to the sea.
So it is different. There is no reference to this at all in this book written by Fr. Ephraim.
But I think I’ve heard three or four different types of visions about this. Another thing,
about worms or something. It’s just…So we have a little bit of, or perhaps a lot of,
inconsistencies. And then after this, one wonders why he didn’t just have the one vision
about the one certain Patriarch. Why leave the Mathewites, go to the Florinites, and then
stop commemorating, and then after that commemorate the Patriarch. Because, when they
left the zealot fathers, they didn’t start commemorating the Patriarch right away. There
was a period when they did not commemorate him either. Then they started
commemorating the Patriarch and then after the lifting of the anathemas (in 1965 –
Transcriber) which happened after the repose of Elder Joseph, the synodia themselves
stopped commemorating. And at that time, although they did not align themselves with
the zealots again, they were just non-commemorators. Which there are still some of those
types on Mount Athos. They aren’t exactly with the zealots, they aren’t exactly with the
Old Calendarists, but they don’t commemorate.

Part IV - 16:32 – 22:01

And Fr. Ephraim of Katounakia, then, at this time when Elder Joseph decided to leave the
zealots, protested a little bit and Elder Joseph said, “If you’ve got a problem, go back to
your elder”. So, you see he belonged to another synodia (ie brotherhood) but he felt a
close connection to elder Joseph. He was almost part of his synodia in a way, because he
felt Elder Joseph was his spiritual father. But then he says he felt so closely connected to
Elder Joseph, he had a problem of conscience: “Their not with the zealots, they started
commemorating, and I’m here with the zealots, what do I do?” So he prayed about it too.
And then he asked a couple of elders, I think one of them was Fr. Gabriel of Dionysiou, I
think the other one was Fr. Gerasimos of Mikragiannanites who was a famous
hymnographer, and they said “Stay with you elder” So for many years after that Fr
Ephraim of Katounakia remained a zealot. He stayed with the zealots.

Now, this is very strange, because in the book written by Fr. Joseph, they are praising him
for that because of his obedience. But, we know that obedience to disobedience is not
obedience. If you believe that’s not the Church, you need to be with the Church. No elder
is above the Church. And there is a very clear chain in what I was talking about. On top
there is the Lord himself who is the head of the Church, then there is the body, the Church,
then we have the synod, after the synod then we have the bishop, then we have the priest,
then we have the deacon, the monastics and the lay people and so and so forth. So, we
have this chain. But if there is a disconnect somewhere, in between Jesus Christ, the
Church, and you, you have to make sure you are connected to the Church. So, he’s saying
there, ie Fr. Joseph is saying in his book, that he was honoring the Church by staying with
the zealots because of the teaching of the Church of obedience. Now, of course, the
Church teaches obedience. This is why Adam fell from paradise, because of his
disobedience, and our Lord came to us by His obedience. And you know we have a lot of
people who aren’t really thinking like Orthodox Christians. They try to reshape
Orthodoxy. They are affected by Protestant thought, perhaps. And they try to
underestimate the chain that we’re talking about. You have to have a spiritual father, you
have to have a bishop, you have to have a synod, you have to have a church, you have to
be obedient. If you’re obedient to Father, you are obedient to Christ. Yes, that’s true, and
we don’t deny that. But if your Father is not connected to the Church, you have a problem.
You have to connect with the Church.

And in another time we hear that Father Ephraim of Katounakia heard a voice saying: “the
Church is in Constantinople.” But on the other hand, he’s continuing to commemorate.
So, this is really a Gordian knot like I said. But people don’t really know, and they can’t
make these connections, and they can’t read betweeen the lines. So, Fr. Ephraim says that
when Elder Joseph made his move, it was apotoma, it was a sudden change. So that’s why
some of the fathers, the older fathers particularly, were surprised to a certain degree by his
decision. I can sympathize to a certain degree with Elder Joseph’s frustration with the
zealot fathers, because some of the zealot fathers did in fact have zeal not according to
knowledge. Some of them were a little too fanatical. But, to be fair, that happens
everywhere. The New Calendarists themselves have fanatics, both those who are
ecumenists, those who are anti-ecumenists. You’re going to find fanaticism everywhere.
It just happens to be a problem. But you can’t base your opinions upon one or two or three
or four people. It has to be based upon the truth.

So, we mentioned our Saints, our own Elders, which Elder Joseph himself had connection
to in some way, to some of them. I know that Fr. Ephraim (of Arizona - Transcriber), I
mentioned that there were some inconsistencies going on, I know that at one time as we
said, when they lifted the anathemas they stopped commemorating, at one time he went
to visit Archbishop Auxentios, at one time Archbishop Auxentios read of prayer of
cheirothesia over him, then he went back. They all started commemorating the Patriarch
when they became Abbots of monasteries. Then, I think it was 1991 or 92, Fr. Ephraim
decided to join the ROCOR, then a few months after that, he left. And of course, people
were saying the Panagia told him to go to the ROCOR. He left after that. So, you know,
did Panagia make mistake, or what is exactly is going on, I don’t know. But, I know that,
they were, during this period when they left the zealots but they were also not
commemorating the Patriarch, that they were very much sympathetic towards the Russian
Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA).

Part V - 22:01 – 25:55

The ROCA rather is where we got our ordinations from. And the ROCA is the
church that supported the traditionalist Orthodox. And there also is another bishop [St.]
Nikolai Velimirovich who used to provide Holy Chrism for the Old Calendarists of
Greece. St. John Maximovitch, the patron Saint of our little monastery, visited my
Cathedral, St. Markella, on numerous occasions. He was up on the throne during services.
And there are pictures of him at the cathedral. Metropolitan [St.] Philaret and the ROCOR
produced a lot of holy people. These were our bishops, and here in America we of course
have a very close connection to them. And in 1969, Met. Philaret wrote, together with his
entire synod, a letter to our synod in Greece, officially proclaiming a recognition,
recognizing them as a sister church. They were aware of what happened. They were aware
of the persecutions against the Old Calendarists after 1924 when the calendar changed.
And, you know, often times when God needs to he makes things clearer to the flock of
Christ, for one reason or another.

In 1925, the Old Calendarists decided that they were going to have a vigil service
for the Feast of the Holy Cross at the church of St. John the Theologian, and it became a
huge event. It wasn’t just ten, twenty, thirty people. It turned out to be 2000 people. The
authorities heard about it and they sent the police to stop the vigil. And, the police arrived
there around 11:30pm, and once they saw a multitude of people looking up the sky, they
looked to the sky and they saw the Sign of the Cross over the church, as a verification to
the faithful who were celebrating according to the Orthodox calendar the feast of the
exaltation of the Holy Cross. (Even the police fell down on their knees). Now when you
read, you can find two other instances of this taking place in the history of the Church, in
the Menaion. It’s commemorated in the Menaion. This is the third time. And this is a big
event. We’re not talking about Yia Yia or Papouli, you know grandma or grandfather,
babush kadezh, whatever you want to call them having some kind of dream or one or two
people seeing something. We’re talking about 2000 people! God doesn’t make mistakes.
And those people remained faithful to the traditions of the Church. There was no such
miracle among the New Calendarists, verifying their mistake.

But after that, it was one thing after another too, but this was a major event because
there was 2000 people. And as I say even the police themselves fell on their knees,
beseeching the Lord for mercy. So, there was no way that they were going to arrest the
priest and cause a roughness there at that service.

So we are called ta logoika provata. We are called the rational flock of Christ. So,
we are supposed to use our mind. And, this is abundantly clear I think to anybody who is
rational, so you can’t be making statements like “the Old Calendarists are all planamenoi”
because I think the miracle of the Cross taking place speaks a lot more than one or two
people making such blank statements.

PART VI - 25:56 – 31:29

Another instance of one of the many miracles which took place, because, as I said,
there were many miracles which took place in order to verify for those who were trying
to preserve their Orthodox faith and tradition that they were doing the right thing by
following Met. Chrysostomos. There were times when clergy were invisible, or people in
general were invisible, and I’ve heard this even from people who are commemorators
today. Clergy who commemorate the Patriarchate, because some of them were zealots at
one point. It was an undeniable fact for them that there were times when the police would
go to arrest people, and the people were just not visible. And one of those times was with
Father [St.] John [The New Almsgiver] of Amfiali, he was in church, in the sanctuary, and
the police went to arrest him, but he was right there, and if you’ve ever been to the church.
I went to the church that he founded, of St. Demetrious, and the sanctuary is very small.
And the police went in and they didn’t see him at all. Other times they would be chanting
and they wouldn’t hear the chanting. So God was working definitely with these people.
God was with these people.

And then on, there were numerous different miracles which took place. I remember
one of the monasteries that I went to in Attiki, in Attika, in honor of the Zodhoko Pigi, The
Life-giving Spring. The elder there, his name was Fr. Dhopetosis ?? (not clear) – yeah
they were nuns that lived there – he was hiding in the mountains during the time of the
persecution of the Old Calendarists, because the Old Calendarist clergy would be
imprisoned, their beards would be shaved, they would take off their rasas. Sometimes we
would hear horrific events like turning over the Holy Communion chalice. Other times
would be toppling off the Epitaphias on Holy Friday. So the nuns were in church mourning
the fact that they had no priest to for the Feast of the Theophany to bless the waters. And
while they were in church, saying their prayers in tears, right underneath the icon of the
Life-Giving Spring, the marble cracked open and water came out. Of course they
understood that this water was Holy Water. And I didn’t mention also for St. John,
remember I mentioned to you about Elder John of Amphiali. After his repose, he was
buried at the monastery of Holy Trinity that he founded. And every year, on the
monastery feast day, the bishop would go out and have a memorial service at his grave,
and once they started this memorial service, water would come out of his grave, and the
faithful would collect it, and I know people that witnessed it many times, and miracles
would happen from this water that came out of the grave of Fr. John. Then of course the
relics came out, and after the relics came out, the miracle stopped. By God’s grace, we
have a rib of St. John at our monastery, and also relics of St. Ieronymos and of St.
Chrysostomos.

So, it’s not so simple. You can’t just say… If you know anything about history, you
can’t really just say that the Old Calendarists are schismatics, especially if you have any
connection with Elder Joseph the Hesychast, because his whole upbringing, or call it his
whole formation as a Hesychast was with the zealot fathers. It was only in the last few
years of his life that he left. And perhaps this is one of the reasons why the New Calendar
Patriarch has not glorified officially him, whereas he’s glorified others like Fr. Paisios,
who was recently reposed I think in 1994. I said glorify, meaning official proclamation.

But the real issue of course, the most problematic issue is, when you’re dealing
with matters of faith, you believe what your bishop believes. So, so if your bishop is
preaching some type of a heresy, then he’s…you’re believing in him, you can’t just say
“well the bishop is the bishop and he can do whatever he wants. That’s his business. And
I believe what I believe.” Because on top of the Holy Table we have the Antimenson
which is signed by the bishop, which gives the permission to the priest to serve the Divine
Liturgy and the Divine Liturgy takes place in his name. The priest is his representative
really. And this is the teaching of St. Ignatios the God-bearer and the fathers of the Church.
And we can bring to reference many statements made by a lot of these bishops which are
extremely problematic because they are not really Orthodox statements. And perhaps we
could save that for another time.

So…let’s just hope (?? Inaudible) that answers your question.