Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Elder Aimilianos, abbot of the Monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos, was born Alexandros Vapheides in Piraeus in October 1934 and fell asleep in the Lord on 9 May 2019 at the convent of Ormylia. He is honoured by the faithful as a great spiritual father of our time, without synodal canonization.

Family and calling

His parents were devout, with roots in Asia Minor. His paternal grandmother, Eudoxia, came from Constantinople, and his grandfather, Alexandros, from Selymbria in Thrace, and had been a student at the Theological School of Halki. In 1906 they moved to Simantra in Cappadocia, where they worked as teachers for Greek pupils until the Asia Minor Catastrophe, when they came to Greece. Though married, they lived as monastics, with vigils and prayer. His grandmother died a nun with the name Eutaxia, and his mother, also a nun, with the name Aimiliani. In such a family the future elder was raised, and he learned to love prayer and the reading of the lives of the saints.

He went to primary school at Simantra in Halkidiki, where his grandmother had settled, and to secondary school at Piraeus, where his parents lived. In 1959 he graduated in theology from the University of Athens. He wanted to become a priest and then a missionary abroad. His friend Anastasios Yannoulatos, later Archbishop of Albania, supported him but advised him to prepare by spending time in a monastery. Yannoulatos sent him to Metropolitan Dionysios of Trikala, who was to introduce him to the monastic life.

Monk and abbot

On 9 December 1960 Alexandros was tonsured a monk and given the name Aimilianos. Two days later he was ordained deacon, and on 15 August 1961, hieromonk. His bishop sent him to spend time in several monasteries and then placed him at the Monastery of St Vissarion, in the foothills of the Pindus. There the father passed through a spiritual crisis and a profound experience that changed him from the root; the young hieromonk of twenty-⁠seven came out of it an elder full of energy, with one aim: the renewal of monastic life.

He was appointed abbot at Meteora and also preacher and confessor of the diocese. His brilliant, spellbinding addresses won over young people from the whole region, many were drawn to monastic life under his guidance, and in a short time he led a large and lively community. His fame and the beauty of Meteora brought many tourists, and the pressure of these made life in the monastery hard. In 1983 the governing body of Mount Athos invited him, with his community of monks and novices, to repopulate the ancient Monastery of Simonopetra. Under his leadership the life and order of the monastery were deeply changed.

Last years

In 1974 he founded Panagia Philanthropini, a centre for social advancement and for medical prevention and research, near Ormylia in Halkidiki, as an adjunct to the Convent of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, a large community of over 120 nuns from various countries, most of them with university degrees. The convent is a dependency of Simonopetra.

In 2000 he retired as abbot for reasons of health and settled at the convent of Ormylia, where he reposed in peace on Thursday, 9 May 2019.