Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia

Description

Saint Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kafsokalyvite (Greek: Όσιος Πορφύριος ο Καυσοκαλυβίτης; secular name: Evangelos Bairaktaris (Greek: Ευάγγελος Μπαϊρακτάρης; February 7, 1906 – December 2, 1991) was a Greek Athonite hieromonk who became widely known for his gifts of spiritual discernment. He was canonised as an Eastern Orthodox Saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the 27th of November 2013.

St. Porphyrios was born on February 7, 1906, in the village of Agios Ioannis, which translates to St. John Karystia, in the province of Evia in Greece. His parents, Leonidas and Eleni Bairaktaris, baptized him as Evangelos, and he was the fourth out of five siblings. He attended only 2 years of school in his childhood, and instead began work at 8 years old, first tending animals on his family’s farm, then in a coal mine, and finally for a grocer in Halkhida and Piraeus. It was during his childhood where it is claimed he wanted to pursue a monastic lifestyle, which he was inspired to do after reading the life of Saint John the Hut-Dweller.

He was tonsured a monk at the age of fourteen with the monastic name Nikitas. He served in the Athonite skete of Kafsokalyvia, in the Cell of St. George, under two spiritual fathers: Fr. Panteleimon and his brother Fr. Ioannikios. Forced by pleurisy to depart the Holy Mountain, he returned to Agios Ioannis, staying at the monastery of Saint Haralambos while back in his birthplace. During this time he was often visited by Bishop Fostimis of Kymi, and through the help of Porphyrios III, Archbishop of Mount Sinai and Raithu, Nikitas was ordained a deacon and then a priest, under the name Porphyrios, at 21 years old. Two years after his ordination, Metropolitan Panteleimon of Karystia appointed him as a father confessor, and later appointed him the office of Archimandrite in 1938