of Our Father Among the Saints Chrysostomos, Former Metropolitan of Phlorina the New Confessor
The great
Apostle Paul says concerning the Righteous Moses that he preferred
rather “to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season, accounting the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the
recompense of reward” (Hebrews 11:25-26). Emulating this Prophet and
God-seer, the ever-memorable Chrysostomos, former Metropolitan of
Phlorina, preferred to undergo countless hardships and persecutions,
together with the people of God of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of
Greece, than to enjoy comfort, honors, and riches by conformance with
the innovating Hierarchs.
Chrysostomos Kabourides
(as he was known in the world) hailed from Madytos in that
most Hellenic region of Eastern Thrace, being born on November 13, 1870,
the day of the commemoration of St. John Chrysostomos, whose name he
received. Loving God from his youth and desiring to offer himself to the
service of the Church, he studied the sacred science of theology and
was ordained a Deacon of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Elevated to
the ranks of Presbyter and Bishop, he served as Metropolitan of Imbros,
later of Pelagonia, and thereafter of Phlorina, attaining distinction
as a preacher of the true Faith and a teacher of virtue in deed and
word.
Being a
“zealot according to knowledge” of the traditional Faith, the
ever-memorable one opposed every contrivance against the Orthodox Faith
and took part in the formation of the Holy Synod of the Church of the
Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, over which he subsequently
presided illustriously. Having proved to be an excellent Shepherd of the
reason-endowed flock of Christ in difficult times of apostasy from the
right Faith, and having championed the Faith handed down by the Fathers
in deed and word into hoary age, he completed the course of his life on
September 7, in the year of salvation 1955.
In
view of the naturally engendered recognition of him as a Confessor and
wonderworker by his contemporaries and those who came after him, and
taking into consideration all that His Eminence, Metropolitan Cyprian of
Oropos and Phyle set forth by report and proposal, which was affirmed
by the Holy Synod, when he made a formal motion concerning the
incorporation of the aforesaid Hierarch into the choir of Holy
Confessors and Hierarchs, we, the least of all Bishops, constituting the
Holy and Sacred Synod of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians
of Greece, beholding his God-pleasing life and conduct, his
indefatigable struggles and toils on behalf of the Orthodox Faith and of
piety, and taking thought for the spiritual benefit of the faithful—his
renown having been made manifest before us, in that the Lord has shown
that his precious Relics, replete with spiritual fragrance, bestow
miracles, being preserved in a silver reliquary in the Holy Convent of
the Dormition of the Theotokos in Parnes, Attica, where the blessed one
was buried and where they are already set out for veneration by the
faithful unto their sanctification—have resolved, in consonance with the
Divine Fathers before us and following the customary practice of the
Church, to ascribe to him, too, the honor befitting holy personages.
Wherefore,
we declare Synodally, decree, appoint, and enjoin, in the Holy Spirit,
that henceforth and unto all eternity the aforementioned, ever-memorable
Chrysostomos, former Metropolitan of Phlorina, be numbered in the choir
of Holy Confessors and Hierarchs of the Church, being honored in annual
Divine services and rites by the pious body of the faithful and
acclaimed in hymns and encomia on the 7th of September, the day of his
repose, to his honor and to the glory of our God, Who is wondrous in His
Saints, Who glorifies the Saints, and Who is glorified in their holy
commemorations and sacred solemnities.
In proof
and assurance thereof our present Synodal Act was executed, having been
drawn up and signed, according to the sacred Procedural Protocols of
our Most Holy Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece, on
the eighth day of the month of May, in the year 2016.
Confirmed in Parnes [Greece], in the year of salvation 2016, on the fifteenth day of the month of May.
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