121
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Image:Saint Savvas- Icon from his church.jpg|frame|right|Icon at the Entrance of his church in Kalymnos]]
[[Image:St-Savas-the-New-icon.jpg|frame|right|First ever icon of Saint Savvas]]
He died on [[7 April 7]], 1947 and his remains were exhumed 10 years later in 1957 and "miracles happen for those who venerate these in faith". In Kalymnos, he is commemorated by the church [[April 7]]. The feasts dates of St. ''Savvas the New of Kalymnos'' are celebrated on various dates in different traditions, [[7 April 7]] ([[25 March 25]] in the [[Old Calendar]]), [[December 5]] with St. [[Sabbas the Sanctified|Sabbas the Sanctified]], and the fifth Sunday of [[Great Lent]] with St. [[Mary of Egypt]].
==Saint Savvas Life==Saint Savvas was born in 1862 in Herakleitsa, Eastern Thrace to Constantine the only child of Constantinos and Smaragdaboth devout people, who were very poor and he was their only son. When he was [[baptize]]d Upon his baptism he was given the name Vasilios.
In 1890, he joined the brotherhood of the Abbott Kallinikos (from Alatsata of Asia Minor) and in 1902 was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[deacon]]. In 1903, a year later, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by Archbishop ''Nikodemos from Diokesaria''. He spent almost 10 years in the desert by the Jordan where he led an austere life and occupied himself with prayer and iconography. His dwelling consisted of two cells which he reached by ascending up a rope ladder. This isolation was necessary for successful inner concentration and noetic prayer and he made great spiritual progress there.
[[Image:St-savvas2.jpg|frame|left|St. Sava the New of Kalymnos]]
Due to the irregularities caused by the raids of the Arabs in the Holy Land, and health reasons, St Savvas was forced to leave. He returned to the motherland - Greece where he searched for a quiet place to continue his monastic struggle. Originally he was attracted to the island of [[Patmos]], where he lived for a while in the hermitage of Grava and later at the [[Monastery of St. John the Theologian (Patmos, Greece)|Monastery of St. John]]. <ref> This is verified by an inscription on an icon painted by St. Savvas himself at the monastery "In the month of December in 1914 this icon was painted by the hand of the iconographer, heiromonk Savvas the Hosevite." </ref>
There, he spent the last years of his life as the priest and spiritual father at the ''Convent of All Saints''. As a [[confessor]], he combined leniency with severity. He was lenient on certain sins and severe to others. For him Blasphemy against God and his saints was one of the greatest sins. He remained an ardent spiritual striver until the end of life and practiced extreme forms of self-restraint with regard to food, drink, and sleep. St. Savvas became a shining example of virtue to all who came into contact with him. Many smelled a heavenly fragrance in his presence and some even saw him rising above the ground as he stood at prayer. Towards the end of his life, St. Savvas was in a state of intense prayer and holy contrition. For three days he did not receive anyone and he gave his last counsels: requested love and obedience in Christ. When he was on the point of death taking his last breath, suddenly he received strength, brought his blessed small hands together, and clapped them repeatedly saying his last holy words: "The Lord! The Lord! The Lord!" He went to the Lord in 1947 on the eve of the [[feast]] of the [[Annunciation]]. One nun saw the soul of the saint ascending in a golden cloud towards heaven. After about 10 years when the saint's grave was opened in accordance to the Greek Orthodox custom, a heavenly fragrance emanated from the grave which covered the whole island of Kalymnos, this phenomenon was witnessed by many, including the local [[bishop]]. This was a testament to the sanctity of the saint. Numerous [[miracle]]s and healings have since been attributed to St. Savvas the New of Kalymnos.
Towards the end of his life, St. Savvas remained in a state of intense prayer and holy contrition. For three days he did not receive anyone and he gave his last counsels: requested love and obedience in Christ. When he was on the point of death taking his last breath, suddenly he received strength, brought his blessed small hands together, and clapped them repeatedly saying his last holy words: "The Lord! The Lord! The Lord," then he recited the hymn of the Annunciation which the nuns found odd as it was not the Annunciation with the new gregorian calendar, but only did the nuns realise later that at that point those following the old Julian calendar were celebrating the vesper feast for the Annunciation. Thus, he died on 7 April 1947l (which was 25 March for the Old Calendar -the eve of the [[feast]] of the [[Annunciation]]. Upon closing his eyes, one of the nuns saw the soul of the saint ascending in a golden cloud towards heaven. After 10 years when the saint's grave was opened, a heavenly fragrance emanated from the grave which covered the whole island of Kalymnos, this phenomenon was witnessed by many, including the local [[bishop]] who upsettingly and initially was refusing to grant permission to the nuns to exhume his relics (when after three years of his death St Savvas miraculously appeared to the nuns ordering them to exhume him as the side of his head was getting wet being buried with his head at the base of a water deposit-sterna in greek) and only after following years of torment and dreams did the then Bishop Isidoros believe and allowed his relics to be exhumed, finding his whole body incorrupt and intact apart from a small section on his skull where a patch of his skin deteriorated because of the water leaking on him- as the Saint had said to the nuns!) This was a testament to the sanctity of the saint. Numerous [[miracle]]s and healings have since been attributed to St. Savvas the New of Kalymnos.
== Icons of the Saints Life ==