Alexander of Velanidia

Alexander of Velanidia, archimandrite and abbot, called "the gentle abbot," with the secular name Panagiotis Theofilopoulos, was born in 1914 in the village of Arfara near Kalamata, of pious parents with many children. For a time he worked as a baker. Though he had finished only primary school, by continual study he acquired much knowledge and could converse easily with educated people. As a young man he came to become a monk on the Holy Mountain, was tonsured there and struggled for years. He then returned to his homeland and was tonsured into the great schema in 1946 at the monastery of the Life-⁠Giving Spring, Velanidia. The next year he was ordained deacon and priest by Metropolitan Chrysostomos Daskalakis of Messenia (d. 1961).

For his humility, piety, spirituality, honesty and goodness he was made abbot of Velanidia (1947-1966). After the monastery was bombed by the Germans in 1943, he made superhuman efforts to rebuild it. Many souls from Kalamata and the surrounding villages came to the monastery to confess and be comforted by the kind elder. His lack of love of money made him even more beloved. He reposed suddenly in the early hours of 26 May 1966, as he was preparing to go to the chapel of Saint Phanourios to celebrate the Liturgy. His death grieved many, and a great crowd gathered at his funeral. He was buried in the cemetery of Velanidia Monastery, which he loved beyond measure and for which he laboured much. Those who wrote about him speak with love: deep piety, exemplary dedication, a tireless spiritual worker, a holy soul, of holy life, kindness and nobility, though with envious people, as always. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.