Akakios of Xenophontos

Akakios of Xenophontos was born in 1847 at Ofrynion near the Dardanelles. In 1870 he came to the hut of the Holy Apostles in the skete of Xenophontos, under the obedience of the elders Hilarion and Gregory, brothers by blood, former Lavriotes. The hieromonk Akakios was a chosen confessor. For many years he confessed the fathers of the sketes, cells and monasteries of Xenophontos and Konstamonitou. Beside him the monk Gregory (d. 1990) learned and cultivated the monastic virtues of obedience, non-⁠possession, renunciation, estrangement from the world, forbearance, humility, silence, love of God and of the brothers. Gregory valued, respected and deeply loved his elder and held him as a saint. Father Akakios struggled together with his brother, the monk Dionysios.

He told his disciples: "Let us remember why we came here. And our end, for it will not delay. Let us not reckon length, let us say the prayer; let us have our hope in Christ and the Mother of God and not busy ourselves with affairs, for they never end, but we shall end." He passed from the transient to the eternal, at the age of eighty, in 1927. It is said that he had a holy end and an exemplary monastic life that inspired deep reverence. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.