St. Chrysostomos The New, Confessor

General Sharing: St. Chrysostomos The New, Confessor and Hierarch    Inbox

Dan Everiss <oregdan@hotmail.com> Sat, May 28, 2016 at 10:07 PM Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original Synodal Act of Glorification (Ἁγιοκατάταξις)  of Our Father Among the Saints Chrysostomos,  Former Metropolitan of Phlorina  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.