Ieronymos of Aegina
Saint Ieronymos of Aegina was born Basil Apostolides in Karvali (in ancient times, Karbala), Cappadocia, or Güzelyurt (Gelveri, Kelveri), Turkey, in 1883. He was ordained in his native land and served as a deacon at the Church of St. George in Constantinople. With the exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey that was arranged at the Treaty of Lausanne in the 1920s, he found himself in Greece as a refugee, eventually ending up, after his ordination as a hieromonk in 1923, on the island of Aegina. He became known as a gifted confessor, a healer, serving as a hospital chaplain, and as a clairvoyant. In 1940, he returned to the Church (Old) Calendar, stating: “The Church of Greece, by changing the festal calendar, has become diseased, a change that was the beginning and cause of many evil things.” Without condemning anyone, and avoiding factionalism, he lived out the rest of his life as a monastic hermit, considered by all, Old and New Calendarists alike, to be a saint. He reposed in 1966, and his funeral was served by Metropolitan Akakios of Attica and Diavleia, the oldest living bishop of the Old Calendar Church.
On September 5/18, 2014, Saint Ieronymos was glorified a saint by the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece.
Notes
Sources
- Official Declaration of the Sanctity of St. Ieronymos of Aegina, by St. Gregory Palamas Monastery, Etna, CA.
- Life of Elder Ieronymos: A Brief Life of Righteous Elder Ieronymos of Aegina (+1966) from Evlogeite! A Pilgrim's Guide to Greece by Mother Nectaria (McLees), pp. 72-76.
- Peter Botsis. Elder Ieronymos of Aegina. Transl. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston, Massachusetts, 2007. 352pp. ISBN 9780943405148
- GOC-K Glorifies Five New Saints from NFTU.net
- The First Official Celebration of St Ieronymos of Aegina from the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of America website