Panagis Basias of Kefallonia

Description

Saint Panagis Basias was born in Lixouri, Kefallinia, in 1801 AD, and was the son of pious and prominent parents, Michael Typaldos – Basia and Regina Dellaporta. He learned Italian, French, Latin and trained in philosophy and theology. Mikros still became a reader and at the beginning of his career he was appointed a tutor and practiced the function of a teacher, but inspired by the radical sermons of Kosmas Flamiatos and Eusebius Pana, ecclesiastical figures of the time, who were the rulers of essentially tyrants, they conspire against the orthodox mind of the inhabitants, leave the public school and give lessons at home, continuing their mission.

At the age of 20, after the death of his father, having an innate inclination and being influenced by the personality of the patron great ascetic Agios Gerasimos and his neighbor, also a great ascetic Agios Anthimos, he abandons everything and arrives at “Xiroskopelos”, a small island in Lower Livathos Vlacherna and place of exile of clergy from the English. The famous Zakynthian clergyman Nikolaos Kantounis was also in exile in those days. But he did not stay long bent by the pleas of his widowed mother and his unprotected sister. So he returns to the world as a monk, but his whole life proves to be a constant ascetic struggle and consistent vigilance of his solitary ideas and decisions.

In 1836 AD He was ordained a deacon and an elder, named Paisios, under the Archbishop of Kefallinia Parthenios Makris. He did not seek a position as a pastor. He usually officiated at the chapel of Agios Spyridon in Platys Gialos, where a large number of believers gathered to officiate and listen to his warm sermons. He was the personification of alms and a warm supporter of the weak. He received from God the gift of prophecy and “foretold the future happening to individuals, family and society in general”, as written in the presentation of his Ordination.

On May 21, 1864 AD, he tasted the joy of the Union of the Ionian Islands with Mother Greece, for which he worked in his own way of resistance close to the heroic radicals, preserving and cultivating the Orthodox Tradition, in such difficult political and social times. .

In 1867 AD, with the terrible earthquakes of Pallika, his house was demolished and since then he is hosted in the house of his cousin Ioannis Geroulanos, father of the great surgeon Marinos Geroulanos.

Due to the fame spread by the many miracles, avoiding the terrible reef of the spiritual life, the selfish ego, he resorts to the well-known method of great Ascetics to pretend to be mad, and thus is included in the choirs of the Saints.

He has been suffering from bed rest for five years. And the patient continues to bless, to pacify, to guide, to advise the Christians, who visit him day and night. There he receives the visit of the new Archbishop Germanos Calligas, to whom he predicts his ascension to the Archbishopric Throne of Athens.

Saint Panagis slept in 1888 AD, and at the pandemic after his three-day funeral, the Metropolitan of Kefallinia, Germanos Kalligas, delivered a famous funeral.

The resurrection of the Holy Relics of the Saint took place on June 6, 1976 AD. and his canonization was done by the Ecumenical Patriarchate by Patriarchal and Synodal Decision on February 4, 1986 AD.

His holy relics are kept in a silver case in the church of Agios Spyridon Lixouri, where his tomb is.

Miracle of Saint Panagi Basia – Narrated by Gerasimos Drakopoulos

“… My late father, then, narrated an amazing miracle of Papa-Basia, which lived in the days of Papa-Basia my father – my grandfather – Vassilios Drakopoulos, lead singer and composer of many church songs.