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Elder Joseph the Hesychast was a monk and elder on Mount Athos. Born in Paros to George and Maria in 1898, the future elder went to work in Pireaus in his teens. At twenty-three he began to read the lives of the Fathers, which gave him the desire to enter into monasticism. He responded to this desire by fasting and praying in the nearby countryside, which was uninhabited, and then go to Mount Athos.

The future Elder yearned to pray unceasingly, but had great troubles - he could not find a spiritual father, and the indifference of many monks towards unceasing prayer. In the midst of this experience, however, he was granted a vision of the uncreated light, and the gift of ceaseless prayer was given to him.

He reposed in 1959, and he has wide acclaim for being the spiritual father or grandfather of Elders Ephrem of Philotheou , Joseph of Vatopedi, Haralambos of Dionysiou and others, who are directly credited for revitalising six of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.


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