Ambrose of the Great Lavra

Ambrose of the Great Lavra (1884-1977), with the secular name Demetrius Dolas, son of Angelos and Eleni, was born in 1884 at Arnaia in Chalkidiki. He came to the Great Lavra in 1904 and was tonsured a monk in 1906. He was an elder from 1928 and superior of the monastery from 1932. His disciple, Bishop Chrysostom of Rodostolon, writes of him: "It was not only his tall, biblical, cassocked stature, nearly two metres, his snow-⁠white beard and the rough, manly features of his face that impressed and inspired respect and awe in all, but chiefly the prudence, seriousness and his great experience in the monastic and administrative affairs of the Great Lavra and of the Mountain; also the sharpness of mind in grasping and assessing events, the foresight recognized by all, so that he anticipated situations and was not surprised by them, and above all the value of his counsels."

The venerable Elder Ambrose, with his ever-⁠sparkling and fatherly gaze, was the living tradition of the Lavra, was like an abbot of it. His monasticism and spirituality, fatherliness and discernment were known. For decades, winter and summer, evening and morning, he was always before 'Blessed is our God' in the first stall on the right. No sacristan remembers Elder Ambrose not saying his 'Amen' at the first 'Blessed is our God.' So he urged his monks too to be always lovers of the services. At that time the katholikon was without heating in winter. An extreme faster and always temperate in food. He did not allow idle talk and laughter. Bishop Nathanael of Miletoupolis, later of Kos and head of the Athoniada, himself his disciple, like Ambrose of Karpathos, interceded to lessen his severity toward his monks, to hear: "I cannot now, in my old age, change my behaviour..." He bore misunderstandings, troubles, injustices and ingratitude with patience and hope in God. He used to say: "Holiness is accomplished by the unceasing cooperation of God's grace and help with each one's personal will and unceasing struggle; an unceasing struggle, I stress, from the beginning of trial and tonsure until the repose and the handing over of the immortal soul to its Saviour and Maker, for endless co-⁠eternity with him in joy and gladness..."

This joy, gladness and co-⁠eternity the blessed elder attained. He reposed in the Lord on 24 November 1977, after 73 years of unbroken monastic life in the Lavra of Saint Athanasios the Athonite. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.