Artemios of New Skete

Artemios of New Skete, an elder of the hut of the Holy Archangels, is recalled by Elder Joseph of Vatopedi (d. 2009) as "another all-⁠radiant star in the choir of the holy fathers and worthy of all good remembrance": endowed with sober innocence and a continuer of the exact patristic tradition. Together with the strictness of his life he had much patience, especially with one of his two disciples, who neglected his monastic duties and distressed him with his whims and inattentions. He valued temperance greatly and followed it to the deepest old age, performing with exactness his most laborious duties despite the abandonment of his bodily strength. As the fathers remembered, he kept vigil and prayed much alone, and always fasted until the ninth hour. When he went to the mountain for wood and came back late, exhausted by thirst and sweat, he took nothing to relieve himself and accepted no other comfort before reading the whole order of his service, according to his lifelong daily programme.

Of his two disciples, the elder went to Saint Anne's Skete, and the cause of his leaving was chiefly the difficult character of the younger brother. This Father Antonios, as he was called, came from time to time to see his elder. Once, coming, he did not find the younger Gabriel in the hut and asked the elder where he had gone. "He is away, my child," he said, "he is at Sykia, opposite Sithonia, and I beg you not to leave my side, so that you may help at my burial, for tomorrow I shall die. I did not want Gabriel to be at my death and I prayed about it and I believe he will not be." The next day, after the elder's death, the fathers wanted to delay the burial a little. Indeed a small boat was seen coming straight toward the skete, and they learned it carried Father Gabriel. But when it approached and could be well distinguished, and shortly would have reached the skete's landing, a violent wind rose against it and forced the boat to turn back to the village. Then Father Antonios told the fathers what the elder had said before he fell asleep, that Father Gabriel would not be at his funeral, and they marvelled at the elder's foreknowledge and at the lot of the disobedient, who deprive themselves of the blessing of the elders and the reward of obedience. The year of his repose is not known. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.