Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
I was in Athens and I was working at a kiosk. I became sick from a powerful demon because I lived far away from the life of the Church. I got involved with mediums. They hypnotized me in order to heal me. The result of this was that I got ten times worse. I quit my job and went to a provincial city. My condition was the same and every day it was getting worse.
I went to Panagia Malevi, or rather they took me there grudgingly because I could not stand looking at icons and crosses. I went to confession and the priest said to me, “Go to Fr. Porphyrios, he can make you well.” I did not believe it. I got up and left. After a few days I began to see the Elder’s hands while I was awake calling me to him and a voice saying “come to me.” This continued every day even more intensely. I attempted to go there and I got as far as Athens. I arrived there without any problem. They took me from Athens to the Elder grudgingly. I did not want to go because I felt like I was burning up. I could not stand it. During the trip, I would open up the window of the car and ask for help and that is why they tied me up. After my relatives suffered through this whole ordeal, we arrived at the Elder’s place.
When they brought me into his cell, I saw him totally aglow like a burning fire. I could not stand it. I wanted to leave but a power kept me there. I fell down convulsing like a fish. In view of the trouble I was causing, the Elder asked what was happening. They told him that a young man could not approach him. After asking my name he said to me, “Do you see, (he called me by my name), what happens to a person when he leaves Christ”?
He got up, read a prayer and said, “Don’t be afraid, it is only temptation. I can send it away right now, but if I start reading exorcisms you will turn everything upside down, that is why you should not allow priests to read exorcisms for you. They should only pray on the Altar and you will get well when you come closer to Christ”.
For the first time in seven years, I left completely calm. He told me to call him on the phone every month. I did not call him because I was ashamed about a particular sin. A month later, he called me himself. One night the demon bothered me terribly. I was shaking all over. I called him and I told him what was happening to me. He said to me to hang up the phone and kneel in front of the icon corner in my house and that I will come there where I was. I had hardly knelt and the Elder was there. I was in such a terrible state that I was barking like a dog. I fell down and convulsed. The only thing that I felt was that above me stood a monk and he was reading. Every time he stretched out his hand and blessed me with the cross, fire was burning my body. It was like a knife that was passing through me and ripping me in the form of a cross. I wanted to turn around and tear him to pieces but I could not, someone was hitting me on my hand every time I stretched it out. My relatives in the other room were praying. They could hear the house creaking and strange banging was coming from the room in which I was. It appears that the Elder was fighting with the demon that is why they heard banging. Slowly but surely, with the Elder’s help, I became well. I became a cantor. I got married and had a son.
My wife once got sick for three months. We would go to the hospital and see the doctors but they could not find what ailed her. I became despondent. I phoned the Elder. He said to me “Don’t be afraid your wife has suffered an infection and she will get well.” I hung up the phone and took her again to the doctors. They immediately found what she was suffering from while for three months they could not find anything. She became well.
I once visited him in his cell and he talked to me for some time. At the end he said to me, “Don’t say anything to anyone about what we discussed because we must be humble”. As soon as I walked out of the door I had forgotten everything.
Once I went to visit him in his cell, but he was not there. I knelt near his bed and although he was not there I heard him saying to me, “I love you…(and said my name)” .
Truly the way I saw him during those five years that I was close to him, he is a saint.
He knew things about my life that nobody else knew about. Many times he would describe my village and he would name areas with their old names although he had never been there before. Every time I went to the Elder’s cell, he would say to me “I love you.” When he was alive, even though I loved him, I never told him so. When he fell asleep, I understood. My family and I thank the Elder for the spiritual and physical healing that he offered me.
From the book “Miraculous Occurences and Counsels of Elder Porphyrios“