Gerontas Porfyrios Kaysokalyvitis

The late Father Porphyrios was born in 1906 in Agios Ioannis, Karystia, Evia. At about twelve years old, he went to Mount Athos, where he lived as an ascetic for approximately seven years. During this time, he fell seriously ill, and his elders sent him to a monastery in the outside world. There, he met Archbishop Porphyrios III of Sinai, who, recognizing his virtue and the divine gifts bestowed upon him by God at such a young age, ordained him as a priest at the age of twenty. As a priest, Father Porphyrios remained in monasteries in Evia until 1940. In 1940, he was appointed chaplain at the Church of Saint Gerasimos in the Athens Polyclinic, near Omonia (at the intersection of Sokratous and Piraeus streets), where he served for 33 years. After his retirement, he continued to conduct services and hear confessions at the ancient secluded chapel of Saint Nicholas in Kallisia, Penteli, until 1978, when he suffered a heart attack. Several months after the heart attack, he stayed with friends in Athens, and in 1979, he settled in Milesi, where he built the large dependency of the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior. In early summer 1991, he returned to Mount Athos, where he had maintained a cell since 1984. On December 2, he passed away peacefully in his cell at Kavsokalyvia, Mount Athos, and was buried the following day in a simple and quiet ceremony, as he wished.