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==Life==
While still being an infant, he was left orphaned and his grandparents looked after him and his two siblings; a brother and a sister. His brother did not treat him very well and noticing that this was a problem his grandparents gave him to a Turkish family to look after him at an early age. When he was seven years old, his grandmother, being a devout Christian, took him on a pilgrimage to an ancient and famous monastery in the Pontos area; the Panagia Soumela.
In 1936 the Elder went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He visited many monasteries and also visited the Jordan river. At one of the hermitages near the Monastery of St. Savva he met in a wondrous way an ascetic who was his uncle. God enlightened the ascetic and revealed to him that the young clergyman passing by was his nephew.
In 1938 the Ministry of Agriculture granted four stremmata of land to the Elder. With the assistance of the villagers he built a little church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Theotokos. With the ever present help of the inhabitants, the construction of the monastery took place in the following year until eventually the consecration of the monastery church took place [[September 14]], 1939.
In 1941 the Bulgarians captured the elder and led him to be butchered. He followed without protest and when they arrived at the place, he prayed and with calmness asked them to proceed with their work. They abandoned him out of fear and ran away.
==Miracles==