The beatitudes of Saint Paisios the Athonite

The beatitudes of Saint Paisios the Athonite

Saint Paisios wrote these beatitudes "as does the madman who writes his outbursts on the wall with charcoal." The reason for the initial craziness was five letters, one after the other, from various parts of Greece on a variety of subjects. While the events described were great blessings of God, those who wrote to St Paisios had fallen into despair because they dealt with them in a worldly way. "After replying accordingly to their letters, I took the pencil like a madman, as I have said, and wrote this epistle."

The Song of Hagia Sophia

The  Song of Hagia Sophia 

(The lament of the Hellenic people, which is full of hope, after the Fall of Constantinople 1453)

God sounds out, the earth sounds out, the heavens sound out.

And the Hagia Sophia also sounds out, the great monastery,

With four hundred sounding-boards and sixty-two bells,

For each bell a priest, for each priest a deacon.

A prophecy of St Paisios