Saint Porphyrios the Kavsokalyvite

“Only God knows what is in their hearts.”

A few years ago, one of the great ascetics and saints of our time, Elder Porphyrios, reposed in Greece. Divine Providence did not appoint him to serve on Mount Athos, where he was a monk, but rather… in the district of ill repute in Athens.

The small church of Saint Demetrios is lost among the many brothels, in close proximity to the garden of drug addicts. The terrible sights of distorted and darkened bodies (in the very center of Athens!) can shatter every illusion about the “beautiful world” of drugs.

And when one realizes that these people were the parishioners of Father Porphyrios for forty years, a spontaneous question arises:

Did the Elder truly manage to find a path to the souls of these “outsiders”?

Or did he live isolated, “separated from sinners”?

The memories of his spiritual children and relatives regarding his encounters with these people are astonishing. They reveal the living experience of the Church—not a Church of self-satisfied righteous men, but a Church of self-aware sinners, of prodigal sons who return.

The Elder never addressed them with moralistic admonitions, much less with condemning words.

Here is a characteristic example.

One year, on the feast of Theophany, to the horror of those accompanying him, Father Porphyrios entered a brothel carrying holy water. He wished the women a blessed feast, sprinkled them with holy water, and chanted the hymns of the celebration. The indignation of his companions knew no bounds. One woman asked him:

— “Father, how could you do this? These are prostitutes!”

And he replied:

— “Because you judged them, I will not allow you to venerate the Cross of Theophany. I did not bless the place, but the creations of God. Only God knows what is in their hearts.”

Within a week, those girls went to the Elder at the church—a church they had not even noticed for so many years. And that was the end of their stay in the district of sin.

Some may say this was an isolated incident. That the Elder was clairvoyant and knew what was in their hearts. It is true.

But even for a single soul that is saved, all of heaven rejoices.

In this story, what matters to us is the way the Elder viewed things. He did not speak to them about the Last Judgment or about hell. He did not frighten them. Nor did he even speak to them theoretically about the joy of Redemption.

He made them partakers of that joy.

The Elder did very little: he did not judge them.

All the rest was done by the Holy Spirit, who entered the souls of sinners through the door that was opened ever so slightly by the love and humility of the Saint.

There were always many people waiting outside Father Porphyrios’ room for advice, confession, and prayerful intercession. Yet from all those waiting, he first called in a group of young people, provocatively dressed, who had come merely out of curiosity to see the “famous Elder.”

When he was later asked why he had not commented on their appearance, he replied:

— “These children had purer hearts than all those waiting outside. If I spoke to them about clothes, about outward appearance, they would never understand that there are far more important things: the pursuit of truth and love for God. And if they believe in Christ, in time they will come to understand for themselves how they ought to live.”

The Elder saw in these young people a sincere desire to fill the “emptiness of their hearts.” If, in order to do so, they turn to life on the streets, to drugs, to alcohol, and in general to every form of rebellion against an impersonal existence, then responsibility also lies with those who failed to show them the alternative