The Repose of Archbishop Auxentios

 by Mother Nectaria, Holy Nativity Convent,

Brookline, Massachusetts

Glory be to god for His great mercy and compassion for granting us the blessing of being with the Archbishop before he reposed. When speaking with him on the telephone he had often entreated us to come to Greece to visit him, as he was too ill to visit his beloved flock in America. With this in mind, and despite the many obstacles, Mother Seraphima, Mother Philothei, and I made the extra effort to go the relatively short distance to Greece after visiting the Holy Land. Not knowing that it was going to be our last visit with him, we can now see how the hand of God opened the way for us. 

We arrived in Greece on October 29/November 11. He received us warmly and felt he couldn't do enough to please us. We were so moved and to us it still seems such a wondrous mystery how a man who had struggled so much for the Church and the Faith, and was such an important figure, showed such fatherly and pastoral concern for such insignificant people as us. He was genuine in his meekness, humility, kindness, and fatherly love. He had for weeks been urging Sister Kalliniki to finish an embroidered icon of Saint Paul, with which he wanted to bless Mother Seraphima when we came. He told Mother Seraphima, when he gave it to her, that he wanted Saint Paul especially to be her protector, since he was the Apostle to the nations -- "that he may guide and protect you always." 

We visited with him about once or twice a day. We didn't want to tire him. He had congestive heart failure and at that time was still recovering from a pneumonic condition he had come down with after the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, from which he had almost died. He had been staying at the Convent of the Ascension at Kapandriti, outside of Athens. This was a second convent which they had built because the Convent of Saint John the Theologian in Petroupolis was too small to house all the sisters, and the neighborhood itself, from being an area of open fields and farmland, had become densely populated as Athens kept growing larger and larger. Because Kapandriti is in the mountains, it is much cooler in the summer, there is no smog, and it is very quiet and peaceful. During the summer, the Archbishop would go there to stay during the week and return to Petroupolis on the weekends for the Liturgy. The sisters told us how, when the Archbishop became so ill after the feast and had to leave Kapandriti to go back to Athens in order to be closer to the doctors, he took one last long look at his office and cell and sighed heavily, saying that he wondered when he would be well enough to come again. At that time his body had retained so much fluid that he could scarcely breathe. He kept getting worse, but then with the help of God he slowly began to recover. 

We had made arrangements to stay through the feast of Saint Nectarios, as I had the fervent desire to go to Aegina and venerate his tomb and relics. We thought we had ample time to spend with him. Well, . . . so we thought. 

On Thursday, November 4/17, the seventh day of our visit, during the early morning service, the Archbishop unexpectedly suffered a fainting spell. He remained unconscious for quite a few minutes. Sister Kalliniki happened to be with him at the time. All the sisters rushed from the church to his room after hearing Sister Kalliniki's shouts for help, fearing that he had just had a heart attack. The doctor was called for, but before he even came, the Archbishop revived again. The doctor did a cardiogram and took his blood pressure. He reassured them that it had merely been a fainting spell, that his blood pressure was fine, and that it had had nothing to do with his heart, but only with the medications he was taking for the swelling in his feet. He hadn't wrapped his feet tightly, and not having enough blood pumping up to his head, he had fainted. The older sisters said that he had had a history of fainting spells for many years now. Sometimes, they said, he would faint in the altar while serving the Liturgy. We were so relieved that he hadn't hurt himself badly that morning -- he had only bruised his right hand. The sisters all breathed a sigh of relief. The doctor gave orders that the Archbishop should stay in bed for the rest of the day so that if he did feel faint again he wouldn't hurt himself by falling. We went to visit a friend of the Monastery and Convent for lunch and returned to the Convent again at around 3:15 pm. It was siesta time and Mother Seraphima was still quite sick with a virus, so we went upstairs to our room to rest. We hadn't told anyone we were back because they were all resting and we didn't want to disturb them. Around 5:30 pm I went down to get some tea for Mother Seraphima, when Sister Kalliniki found me and said that the Archbishop had been very anxious to see us all afternoon. She said I had to return a call to the sisters back home in Boston quickly, and then go and see the Archbishop. We took some tea up for Mother Seraphima. She wanted very badly to see the Archbishop but didn't want to cause him to come down with the virus with which she was still sick. She wanted so much at least to go and greet him at the window by his bed as Father Panteleimon had greeted Vladyka Andrei of Novo-Diveyevo when the latter was too ill to receive him. But Sister Kalliniki would not let her even do that, for fear that Mother Seraphima would catch a draft and get worse. She promised that with two days' worth of antibiotics in her, she would have no fear of seeing him tomorrow and, "besides, you still have so many days ahead." 

After I spoke with the sisters back home, I went down to see the Archbishop who kept sending messages with different sisters for me to hurry. When I went into his little bedroom, he was sitting up in bed leaning back against the headboard, and Mother Chrysovalantou was sitting in his chair next to his night table. I went and got his blessing. He was so joyous, and looked so well. Sister Kalliniki put a little stool for me to sit on next to the Archbishop's bed, and she said, ". . . like Nicodemus sitting and talking with the Lord." He was so happy and, when she got his blessing to leave, he squeezed her hand, something which he had never done before. Mother Chrysovalantou went out for a minute. Seeing an opportune moment, he pulled out from his pocket and gave me three little prayer ropes which he had made secretly for Mother Seraphima, our Mother Xeni, and me. He also told me that he had hidden away in the cupboard an empty kleenex box full of prayer ropes he had been making all year for all of our sisters back home. (The sisters were always very concerned that he not tire himself, so sometimes, in order not to cause the sisters to worry, he would make prayer ropes secretly.) He wanted very much for me to tell Mother Seraphima how much he loved our community, and to be assured that he would always pray for us. He was grieved that our Mother Xeni was not able to come to visit also. He said that noetically she would receive the blessing as if she were really there, just as all our sisters would. (It's not that the Archbishop made exceptions just for us. He loved everyone equally. Since he had suffered the heart attack in 1991, Mother Xeni and I, knowing Greek, had been assisting Mother Seraphima in calling almost every weekend, on behalf of our whole sisterhood, to inquire after his health. We were also deemed worthy to visit with him at the Convent in the summer of 1992, when we went to Greece with a blessing to learn gold embroidery from the nuns at his convent. Mother Seraphima had also had the opportunity to visit him with our Mother Thecla in the summer of 1993. Thus, during these years we were able to become more acquainted with him than we would have otherwise. We came to respect and love the Archbishop greatly and understand the sufferings he underwent. And just as grandchildren comfort and bring joy to their grandparents, so in like manner, we his spiritual grandchildren were somehow able to bring consolation and joy to his much-suffering life -- not by any virtue of our own but by the great mercy and condescension of God.) Mother Chrysovalantou came back in the room with Abbess Xeni, who had just returned from the hospital where she had gone to have some tests done. Although the doctor had said in the morning that the Archbishop was alright, she had felt a premonition and was very anxious and concerned for his health the whole day. The Archbishop assured her that he was feeling much better. He said that he felt so much better -- better than he ever felt before. Mother Xeni was so happy to hear that and, seeing him looking so well and joyous, received his blessing to go and tend to some convent matters. I got a phone call from my aunt and so I had to go answer it in the office. As soon as I was through, I ran back to the Archbishop's little house, praying that the door would still be unlocked. Such an opportunity to visit with him, I kept thinking -- I don't want to let it pass away! It seemed like every time we were allowed to go to see him, I got called away to the phone. The door was unlocked and I went in and knocked on the Archbishop's door. He was so happy that I came back. I rejoiced so much to see him so well and so joyous. Mother Chrysovalantou was making a prayer rope and I sat down on his little stool again. 

I related to him our pilgrimage, how we went to the Holy Land and how we were so comforted by being able to daily venerate Holy Golgotha and our Lord's Tomb and how happy and comforted we are now, being in Athens, and being deemed worthy to see him again. I went on to say that Mother Seraphima and I were thinking that by continuing our pilgrimage to Athens, we had come to another Golgotha, in that his whole life had been like a Golgotha. He said, "Yes, I've had many crosses to bear all my life and the last cross has been a wooden one. It's been the hardest to bear." I don't know what he referred to -- his illness, the grief of the schism and bishops who slandered him and went against him? -- I don't know and he didn't explain. He started relating to me once again how Archbishop Leonty of Chile came to Greece to help the Greek Old Calendarists on behalf of the Russian Synod. Vladyka Leonty didn't want to ordain Kiousis or any of the other candidates that had stepped forward. He asked to see all their archimandrites and when he saw the Archbishop, who was then Father Auxentios, he liked him so much because of the humble way he carried himself. The Archbishop caught on and, when he went back to the convent, he told the sisters what had happened. He told them how much he didn't want to be ordained. The sisters also feared that he would be taken away from them, and then they would be left without a spiritual father. So, they made plans for him to leave by night to go and hide some place so that the Bishops would have to get someone else. (Bishop Akakios -- the elder -- and Bishop Parthenios -- the founder of the Convent of the Dormition in Aharnae, Attica -- had already been consecrated and the Archbishop, the then Father Auxentios, had congratulated them just before he went in to see Vladyka Leonty.) As the sisters were discussing the plan of escape, the younger Father Akakios, who was the nephew of the elder Bishop Akakios, came by car suddenly and took him. Somehow the Bishops knew he would try to get away. The Archbishop chuckled and said, "Vladyka Leonty saw I was a simpleton and that I wouldn't be the type of person who, after he had ordained me, would pick up his staff to hit him over the head with it. Many of the other bishops later did that to me. Glory be to God for all things! May God forgive them." 

He continued, "Well, I was ordained during the night, and my great sorrows and crosses began immediately. My happiest days were when I was just a simple monk in Keratea. After I was ordained a priest, I was sent from city to city to serve the Liturgies for the faithful. When it came time for them later to choose an Archbishop, I flatly refused that anyone nominate me." He went on to say that many envied him very much and were already up in arms against him, especially Bishop Chrysostom of Volos who brought a contingent of people (priests, theologians, and lay people) to vote against him. He kept shouting, "Psifos Klirou kai Laou -- Election by clergy and people." In other words, that the Synod of Bishops should not just vote among themselves. No one paid attention to them and the majority vote fell to Archbishop Auxentios. When the election was announced, immediately someone present ran up and grabbed him by the beard and screamed that he should imitate Saint Gregory the Theologian and step down. The Archbishop told him, "I can't, I must imitate Saint John Chrysostom." He sighed heavily and said, "I have always revered Saint John Chrysostom but especially after becoming Archbishop. I had his life before me as an example. It was a source of consolation and edification for me." I became worried that maybe I was tiring him, but he said "No, no, not at all." He then began to tell us how edified he was by Vladyka Leonty's reverence for Saint Paul, how that, after the ordinations had taken place, he had made a pilgrimage all over Greece in order to worship wherever the Holy Apostle had preached or stood. He went to Corinth and got down on his hands and knees, weeping and kissing the ground over and over again as if Saint Paul were standing right there in front of him. He took a stone from the ground as his greatest treasure. He went to the Holy Mountain and was so moved. He even went to Philippi, where Saint Paul preached to the Philippians . . ." 

At that point the Archbishop suddenly stopped talking. He straightened himself up against the headboard and was looking straight ahead at the icon of Saint Menas. He smiled and it seemed to Mother Chrysovalantou and me that he was just going to clear his throat and tell us something wonderful, as if he suddenly got an inspiration or remembered something amazing. Unfortunately, we did not hear any other words from him again for he sighed, closed his eyes, and went limp. We both got very alarmed and thought he had fainted again. (It was only later that we realized that at this moment his soul had left his body.) Mother Chrysovalantou told me to quickly get Sister Kalliniki. I ran and called out for her. She came running and so did all the sisters who happened to be within earshot. We all thought to try to revive him somehow -- two of us were rubbing his feet, Sister Syncletiki was massaging his heart, another sister was wiping his forehead, another was dragging in the oxygen tank for him, another calling the ambulance, another sister on a different line calling the doctor -- all of us thinking that he had merely fainted, and fearing that possibly he had suffered a heart attack. The doctor came within minutes. The doctor hooked up a cardiogram and instructed the sisters to do CPR. He also hooked up an IV. Another doctor came. The ambulance came, but the doctors decided amongst themselves not to let the Archbishop leave for the nearest hospital. The third cardiologist came, saw the readings, gave one last pound on his poor heart and pronounced him dead. We were all stunned as if a lightning bolt had just hit us. How could it be? He was so well and joyous, and it happened so quickly. I was holding the IV bottle at that time and the doctor turned to me and said, "Sister, we have to accept death when it comes. It's as natural as life is." I was just numbed. The doctors went off with Abbess Xeni and Mother Chrysovalantou to write up the death certificate. They had seen that the Archbishop had reposed and didn't want him to be taken to a hospital by the ambulance and pronounced dead there, where by law they would have had to have an autopsy done to determine the cause of death. The cause of death, as the doctors told us, was "cessation of the heart." We tried so hard to keep our composure but it was so difficult not to cry. We felt the world had just come to an end or that the sun had been extinguished forever. It came so suddenly that it was difficult to believe that we had lost our Archbishop. As he lay there on his bed so peacefully, we tried to straighten up the room. One of the doctors removed the cardiogram cables and the IV tubes, while we waited for the clergy to arrive to dress him. 

I went upstairs to go and tell Mother Seraphima what had happened. I didn't know how I was going to be able to tell her such unexpected sorrowful news. Abbess Xeni said to me, "Try to tell her as gently and as calmly as you can." I felt anything but calm. I was shaking all over. Mother Seraphima was reading her Akathist when I walked in. I sat down beside her and told her what had happened in the last hour and a half. She got very alarmed, as can well be understood, and started crying. We went down together to his little house and went into his little bedroom. Mother Seraphima knelt down and kept kissing his hand over and over again and crying. There were a few drops of blood on the floor and she kept trying to wipe them up with her prayer rope. Sister Syncletiki saw her efforts, and where the IV had been, she tried to put a little on her prayer rope for a blessing. We went next door and tried to comfort Sister Kalliniki. Oh, my dear! it was so pathetic -- so pitiful -- it just broke your heart to pieces. As long as she has been at the convent, her obedience has been to serve the Archbishop. Her laments moved everyone in the room to tears. As soon as she saw us she started, "Oh, and the Archbishop loved you all so much. How he waited and waited for you to come as if it was Pascha. We would have lost our Paterouli -- our little Father -- in the summer, I'm sure, but he waited for you. Now we're orphans! Now our Paterouli is gone! How he rejoiced every weekend to hear your voices on the phone . . ." and on and on. Mother Theologia and Sister Matrona arrived from the convent at Kapandriti absolutely grief-stricken. We went back into his little bedroom until the clergy came. Father Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, Father Gregory of Holy Protection Church, Father Dorotheos of the Convent of Panagia Canalla, and Father Demetrios, the Convent's chaplin, came to dress the Archbishop. That's when we all started making phone calls to notify people all over the world of the Archbishop's repose. There were numerous phone calls back and forth to America to find out if our Bishops Ephraim and Macarios would be able to come for the funeral. The custom in Greece is to bury the reposed one immediately the very next day, but the clergy and Mother Xeni were willing to hold off the funeral for an extra day just so that the bishops would be able to come. Mother Xeni entreated our Elder, Father Panteleimon, to come also with them to honor the Archbishop and for the consolation of the community of orphaned sisters. 

The Archbishop had reposed around 7:30 pm. By 11:00 pm the clergy began to carry the Archbishop into the convent church. He was dressed in his red velvet episcopal vestments and sitting up in his chair. He was placed in the center of the church, facing the Holy Doors. In his left hand he held the Gospel and his right hand was blessing. He did not in the least resemble one that was dead, but rather one that was merely sleeping. The Fathers told us that while they dressed him, he hadn't become stiff at all and, when everyone was in the church, they were amazed to find that a fragrance came forth from him. 

The Fathers began the Vespers service and as soon as it ended they served the first Memorial Service for the Archbishop. Following the Memorial, the reading of the Gospels began which would continue all through the night. People started coming from all over Athens. The news had spread so quickly. 

Matins began at 6:00 am, immediately followed by the Liturgy. For the rest of the day, there was a constant stream of people coming to pay their respects to the Archbishop. Memorial services kept interrupting the reading of the Gospel. One Bishop Stephanos (of the schismatics) came and did a memorial by himself. He was weeping very much and, at the end began saying out loud: "Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned against you. We embittered you. We slandered you. We grieved you. Forgive us . . ." The Archbishop's only living relatives, his cousin and niece, came also and stood close by his chair. Mothers Theologia and Chrysovalantou hardly left his side at all. They have been his spiritual daughters for about fifty years, and were the first nuns to form a convent under his spiritual direction. It rained all day. It seemed to everyone that nature itself was mourning the repose of our beloved Archbishop. 

Many and various Bishops and clergy came to pay their respects. Among them were Bishop Petros of Astoria, Bishop Euthymios, and many priests of the Kiousis jurisdiction. A woman from Ikaria had come to Athens to receive medical attention for one of her eyes which had lost much of it's vision and was giving her a lot of pain. When she heard the news of the Archbishop's repose, she had a friend bring her to the Convent. As soon as she kissed and blessed her afflicted eye with the Archbishop's hand, she was immediately relieved of the pain and her vision was restored. The Archbishop's hand throughout the day was being raised by the sisters to bless the people as they would come to kiss it. He had not become stiff at all. Another thing which amazed me very much was that the bruise he had on his right hand, instead of being the first place to show signs of corruption, which is only natural, seemed to be fading away and by the time we had the funeral on Saturday, it was completely gone. If I had not asked him about it when I got his blessing Thursday night, I probably wouldn't have paid attention to the fact that it was getting better instead of worse. Nuns from all over Attica, the Peloponnese, and Aegina were pouring in all the time. For many years he had heard their confessions and many times would serve Liturgies for them. All were feeling their orphanhood greatly. He was a spiritual father of so many of the convents around Athens -- such a tireless laborer in the Lord's vineyard! 

We received a call from Bishop Macarios who had just arrived from Canada and we asked him to come as soon as possible so that there would be a hierarch to escort the Archbishop's remains to the convent at Kapandriti where the funeral would take place the next day. He arrived around 3:15 pm and immediately preparations were made for the procession to take place. The Sisters of the Convent of Saint Sophronios offered the services of their van. They so much wanted the honor of taking their Elder to the place of his final rest. The procession from the Church began as the bells rang mournfully. There were so many people. The church, courtyard, verandas, sidewalks were all so crowded with people, that the procession could only move very slowly. We were soon able to see Mother Seraphima leading the procession, having been given the Archbishop's staff and Gospel to carry. Finally the Archbishop could be seen above the crowd being carried by the clergy in his chair and Bishop Macarios followed at the end. "Our Paterouli is being taken away from us!" and similar laments could be heard among the sobs and cries of the crowd as the Archbishop was being taken out of the Convent gates. Just as they were putting the Archbishop into the van, Metropolitan Maximos arrived. Bishop Macarius gave him his place next to the Archbishop, while he went with some of the other clergy. Once everyone had a ride, the procession of cars began their way. It took over an hour to get from Petroupolis to Kapandriti. At Kapandriti there was a thick fog and it had become quite dark. When the time came to take the Archbishop out of the van, the rain stopped until he was in the church, and then it started again. The Archbishop had now finally come back to his beloved haven. He returned now, not just to rest from the noise, heat, and pollution in Athens, but to be laid in his grave which he had had someone dig for him five years before. (At the time, he had even climbed in it, to make sure that it would fit him. Not all the sisters knew about the grave because he didn't want them to be alarmed or worried.) Once inside the church, the Archbishop was again placed in the center and a memorial service was performed almost immediately by the two Hierarchs and clergy present. The service of Vespers was held and the reading of the Gospels continued, once again lasting all through the night for a second time. On Saturday morning, following the Liturgy, the Hierarchs and clergy again served a memorial service. 

Around noon we received news that Bishop Ephraim and Father Panteleimon had arrived at the airport in Athens. The Fathers tried to delay the funeral as long as they could so that the travellers would arrive in time but, not being able to wait any longer, at 2:30 pm the burial service began. Bishop Ephraim and Father Panteleimon still hadn't arrived, nor had Bishop Photios from France, but with the help of God, they all managed to come shortly after the service started. Metropolitan Maximos and Bishop Macarios stood on the ambon facing the Archbishop while the clergy formed two rows on either side of the space from the ambon to where the Archbishop was. Abbess Xeni, Mothers Theologia and Chrysovalantou, and Mother Eupraxia of Aegina stood by his right side. Mother Seraphima was directly behind him holding a lampada for him. I stood next to her with our Mother Philothei and several other nuns from the Convent at Petroupolis on his left. The clergy chanted the whole service. During the service, the crowd increased so much that one could barely lift one's hand to make the sign of the cross. 

"Blessed is the way wherein thou goest today," began Metropolitan Maximos, in his eulogy for the Archbishop towards the end of the service, "for a place of rest hath been prepared for thee. Such a Hierarch befitted us; one who is holy, guileless, undefiled, separate from schism and above all evil. Such a one was our ever memorable Archbishop . . . Just as the prizewinners are crowned, so likewise is he. He endured much for the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ . . . He never spoke evil of anyone. To no one did he ever speak a harsh word, but would forgive all readily. We will always remember him and have his life before us as an example . . . I pray that his holy blessing may strengthen us all until the last breath of our Orthodox life. Amen." 

As Father Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos was ending his eulogy, which had followed that of Metropolitan Maximos, the grief and mourning that had been held back during the service as if by a dam, was suddenly released, and the church was flooded with sobs and cries, as he began to speak directly to the Archbishop, ". . . Your Beatitude, respected Father and Master, our respected and most beloved Father, we will never forget you! Your holy memory and the example of your martyric life will ever guide us in this temporal life and in the difficulties which we will encounter in this difficult and harsh path of our Church. We promise you that we will remain steadfast on the path which you engraved for us by your words and your holy way of life . . . We will never forget you, Geronta! May your soul find light and repose!" 

The great mass of people began to move forward for the last kiss. Those of us who were surrounding the Archbishop felt as if we were being crushed. There was so much confusion and the crowd was so great that the clergy decided it would be better to have the people venerate the Archbishop outside the church, on the Convent grounds, where possibly there would be more room. It was with great difficulty that the Archbishop was lifted up in his chair and led by the Hierarchs and clergy out of the Church. It took a very long time for them just to reach the door, so that, by the time the procession was able to get outside, the clergy took him directly to his grave and began to lower him into it. They were concerned that by the time all the people would have been able to come up for the last kiss, it would have already become quite dark. One can just imagine now how grieved the faithful were, not being able to kiss the Archbishop's hand for the last time. Especially grieved were a group of faithful who had driven many hours to come to the Archbishop's funeral and had only arrived during the service. They didn't get to kiss his hand or see him at all, except when he was being carried out of the Church. 

Our beloved Archbishop was placed in his grave, sitting up in his chair, with his arms crossed and placed underneath his sakkos now. Father Panteleimon received the Gospel which he was holding as a blessing. His mitre was taken by the sisters of his convent, as a blessing and consolation, and in the monastic custom, his face was now covered with his koukoulion. They covered his grave with wooden planks and tin roofing and placed on top all the flowers which the faithful had brought and sent. This was all just temporary, as the sisters have ordered a beautiful marble tomb and cross for him. He had told them while he was alive not to do anything special, and that he wanted his grave to be inconspicuous. The sisters, however, felt that he deserved the best and that it was only out of humility that he said that. 

It all seems now as if it were a dream. It is so difficult to believe that the Archbishop has left us. He is now enjoying the blessed repose from all his labors. Abbess Xeni told us that when Father Panteleimon had first spoken to her, to give her his condolences, she was so comforted by his saying, "I do not give you my sympathy but my congratulations, in that you now have a saint interceding for you in the Heavens." 

When we had spoken with our sisters in Boston on Saturday, before the Archbishop had been taken to Kapandriti, they told us that during the Friday Vespers service, when they had chanted the doxasticon for Saint Jonah of Novgorod, they felt that they were chanting it for the Archbishop. It went as follows: 

Come, O ye people of great Novgorod, let us celebrate spiritually; for today is the day of the repose of our good shepherd from his labours, on which let us sound forth hymns as it were with a trumpet: Rejoice, radiant luminary for the world. Rejoice, radiant image of the Noetic Sun. Rejoice, thou who dost illumine all with the rays of virtues. But, O most comely father, mediator for the world and fervent intercessor of thy flock, cease not to pray, we beseech thee, that we who with love do honor thy sacred memory, may be saved from every peril. 

May the Archbishop's prayers and blessings be with us all and may he guide and protect our Hierarchs, clergy, and faithful!